High repetition rates in high energy solid-state laser systems can yield to a rise of temperature in amplifiers despite the use of cooling systems. This effect can significantly impact the performance of amplifiers by inducing thermal stress, birefringence or thermal lensing. Here, we develop a multiphysics model to support the design, optimization and commissioning of a liquid-cooled large aperture split-slab laser glass amplifier. This multiphysics model includes optical pumping in the amplifying medium, heat loading, hydraulic effects induced by the liquid coolant, mechanical deformation and their potential coupled effects on the optical wavefront. The accuracy of each model is assessed by carrying out specific experimental measurements and characterizations. We show that this set of models allows the prediction of performance of a liquid-cooled amplifier from the flash-lamp emission to the amplified wavefront at a repetition rate of one shot per minute.
This paper investigates hot spot characteristics generated by the superposition of multiple laser beams. First, properties of speckle statistics are studied in the context of only one laser beam by computing the autocorrelation function. The case of multiple laser beams is then considered. In certain conditions, it is shown that speckles have an ellipsoidal shape. Analytical expressions of hot spot radii generated by multiple laser beams are derived and compared to numerical estimates made from the autocorrelation function. They are also compared to numerical simulations performed within the paraxial approximation. Excellent agreement is found for the speckle width as well as for the speckle length. Application to the speckle patterns generated in the Laser MegaJoule configuration in the zone where all the beams overlap is presented. Influence of polarization on the size of the speckles as well as on their abundance is studied.
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