A signal to noise ratio measurement for single shot laser pulses by use of an optical Kerr gate

He, Junfang; Zhu, Changjun; Wang, Yishan; Cheng, Guanghua; Zou, Kuaisheng; Wu, Dengke; Xie, Xudong

doi:10.1364/oe.19.004438

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…SSCC usually relies on time-to-space encoding that converts the temporal contrast of the under-test pulse into the spatial contrast of the correlating beam. The spatially distributed correlating beam can be measured by a parallel array detector such as charge-coupled device (CCD) [24][25][26][27][29][30][31] and fiber-array-mediated photomultiplier [23,28,32]. Time-tospace encoding can be enabled by using a clean sampling pulse to interact with the under-test pulse in a wide-beam noncollinear geometry.…”

Section: Principle and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large temporal window and high-resolution single-shot cross-correlator with two separate measurement channels

Ouyang

Pan

et al. 2022

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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In strong-field physics experiments with ultra-intense lasers, single-shot crosscorrelator (SSCC) is essential for fast optimization of the pulse contrast and meaningful comparison with theory for each pulse shot. To simultaneously characterize an ultrashort pulse and its long pedestal, the SSCC device must have both a high resolution and large temporal window. However, the resolution and window in all kinds of single-shot measurement contradict each other in principle. Here we propose and demonstrate a novel SSCC device with two separate measurement channels: channel one for the large-window pedestal measurement has a moderate resolution but a large window, while channel two for the ultrashort pulse measurement has a small window but a high resolution; this allows the accurate characterization of the pulse contrast in single-shot. A two-channel SSCC device with a 200-fs resolution and 114-ps window has been developed and tested for its application in ultra-intense lasers at 800 nm.

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Section: Principle and Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large temporal window and high-resolution single-shot cross-correlator with two separate measurement channels

Ouyang

Pan

et al. 2022

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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“…The time-to-space encoding in SSCC precludes the use of single-element PMT detector and necessitates a multi-element detector. The CCD, as a commercial multielement detector, is extensively used in the majority of SSCC investigations [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . However, it has a much poorer sensitivity compared to the known most sensitive PMT detector.…”

Section: High-sensitivity Parallel Detection For High Dynamic Rangementioning

confidence: 99%

“…multi-element detector. Historically, the reported dynamic range of SSCC was limited to ∼10 6 for a long time [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] , which is far from the 10 10 requirement of petawatt lasers. Besides, the use of time-to-space encoding may convert the scattering and stray reflection in SSCC into extra temporal noise during the measurement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike the DSCC with a mechanical delay line, the SSCC normally realizes single-shot measurement based on time-to-space encoding and a multi-element detector. Historically, the reported dynamic range of SSCC was limited to for a long time [15–23] , which is far from the requirement of petawatt lasers. Besides, the use of time-to-space encoding may convert the scattering and stray reflection in SSCC into extra temporal noise during the measurement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Single-shot cross-correlator for pulse-contrast characterization of high peak-power lasers

Wang

Xie

et al. 2018

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

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Pulse contrast is a crucial parameter of high peak-power lasers since the prepulse noise may disturb laser–plasma interactions. Contrast measurement is thus a prerequisite to tackle the contrast challenge in high peak-power lasers. This paper presents the progress review of single-shot cross-correlator (SSCC) for real-time contrast characterization. We begin with the key technologies that enable an SSCC to simultaneously possess high dynamic range ($10^{10}$), large temporal window (50–70 ps) and high fidelity. We also summarize the instrumentation of SSCC prototypes and their applications on five sets of petawatt laser facilities in China. Finally, we discuss how to extend contrast measurements from time domain to spatiotemporal domain. Real-time and high-dynamic-range contrast measurements, provided by SSCC, can not only characterize various complex noises in high peak-power lasers but also guide the system optimization.

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“…similar to that described in references [19]. Moreover, the instrument can be used to measure contrast ratio of a single laser pulse.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

Pulse contrast improvement for chirped pulse amplification lasers by spectro-temporal filtering

Wang

et al. 2015

Journal of Modern Optics

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A spectro-temporal filtering method is proposed to increase the contrast ratio of chirped pulses. The advantages of this method include easy cascading, high transmission, and it can also be used in the high-energy chirped pulse amplifier (CPA) system. The effectiveness of the proposed method was experimentally verified by operating the spectro-temporal filtering method on a Ti:sapphire CPA system and then measuring the contrast ratio of pulse based on optical Kerr gate effect(OKG). The measuring result demonstrated that, after passing through one-stage spectro-temporal filtering system with transmittance up to 70%, the contrast ratio of the pulse was improved by an order of magnitude.Keywords: ultrafast laser pulse; contrast ratio; spectro-temporal filtering; photoconductive semiconductor switch IntroductionWith the rapid development of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technology, the ultrashort, ultrahigh-intensity laser pulse generation is thus continually promoted [1-3], and laser intensity as high as 10 22 W/cm 2 had been reached. When interaction occurs between a high-intensity laser pulse and target, pre-pulse heating and vaporization of the target can lead to pre-formed plasma once the vapor is ionized by the rising edge of the high-intensity pulse [4]. In fact, the intensity ratio of the pulse peak to the pedestal or satellite pulse is called the pulse contrast ratio. A clean pulse is desired when intense field-matter interactions are considered. The underlying physics of nanosecond-scale pre-pulse generation is amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) effect.Several ways have been studied and adopted to improve the laser pulse contrast ratio, which include plasma mirrors [5][6][7], electro-optic methods [8], saturable absorbers [9], cross-polarized wave (XPW) generation [10,11], polarization rotation [12][13][14], double CPA [15], noncollinear femtosecond optical-parametric amplifier [16], and so on. A plasma mirror was adopted to enhance the contrast ratio of an 8 fs multiterawatt laser pulse by 2.5 orders of magnitude while the pulse duration was retained [7]. Especially, pulse contrast ratio as high as 10 11 had been acquired in a multiterawatt, Ti:sapphire CPA laser system using the XPW generation method [11]. However, for a further and thorough investigation, spectro-temporal filtering method has been launched to improve efficiency, simplicity of cascading and achieve high transmission, and effectively avoid nonlinear effects induced by the high peak intensity [17,18].

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A signal to noise ratio measurement for single shot laser pulses by use of an optical Kerr gate

Cited by 10 publications

References 25 publications

Large temporal window and high-resolution single-shot cross-correlator with two separate measurement channels

Large temporal window and high-resolution single-shot cross-correlator with two separate measurement channels

Single-shot cross-correlator for pulse-contrast characterization of high peak-power lasers

Pulse contrast improvement for chirped pulse amplification lasers by spectro-temporal filtering

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