Beam distortion effects upon focusing an ultrashort petawatt laser pulse to greater than 10 22 W/cm 2

Emerging multi-PW class lasers and their envisioned laser plasma interaction applications in unprecedented intensity regimes set a very demanding frame for the precise understanding of the finest properties of these systems. In this work we present a synthesis of simulations studies on a series of less known or even completely disregarded spatiotemporal effects that could potentially impact greatly the performances of high intensity lasers.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal coupling investigations for Ti:sapphire-based multi-PW lasers

Zou

Coïc

Papadopoulos

2022

“…With the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technology invented in 1985 [1] , research using high-intensity lasers has evolved for various applications [2,3] . Recently, the development of ultrahigh-power lasers and spatio-temporal control techniques, such as deformable mirrors and an optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA), has enabled the focused intensity to reach 10 22 -10 23 W/cm 2 [4][5][6][7][8] . In laserplasma experiments, pre-plasma formation on the target owing to the poor temporal contrast has become a significant problem preventing the interaction with an ultraintense laser pulse, as the focused intensity increases [9,10] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the plasma mirror system at the J-KAREN-P facility

Kon

Nishiuchi²,

Fukuda³

et al. 2022

We report on the design and characterisation of the plasma mirror system installed on the J-KAREN-P laser at the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Kansai Photon Science Institute. The reflectivity of the single plasma mirror system exceeded 80%. Additionally, the temporal contrast was improved by two orders of magnitude at 1 ps before the main pulse. Furthermore, the laser near field spatial distribution after the plasma mirror was kept constant at plasma mirror fluence <100 kJ/cm2. We also

“…Moreover, the scalability to higher peak power is another key issue for strong field physics in ultrarelativistic regime. The next-generation PW-class laser projects have already been proposed and constructed worldwide, which include Extreme Light Infrastructure, Apollon-10 PW laser, Vulcan-10 PW laser, and so on [2,10] . In the near future, the focused laser intensity will probably exceed 10 22 W/cm 2 and reach 10 23 W/cm 2 based on the 10 PW-class lasers above.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The laser beamline in SULF facility

Zhang

et al. 2020

In this paper, we report the recent progress on the $1~\text{PW}/0.1~\text{Hz}$ laser beamline of Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The SULF-1 PW laser beamline is based on the double chirped pulse amplification (CPA) scheme, which can generate laser pulses of 50.8 J at 0.1 Hz after the final amplifier; the shot-to-shot energy fluctuation of the amplified pulse is as low as 1.2% (std). After compression, the pulse duration of 29.6 fs is achieved, which can support a maximal peak power of 1 PW. The contrast ratio at $-80~\text{ps}$ before main pulse is measured to be $2.5\times 10^{-11}$ . The focused peak intensity is improved by optimizing the angular dispersion in the grating compressor. The maximal focused peak intensity can reach $2.7\times 10^{19}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ even with an $f/26.5$ off-axis parabolic mirror. The horizontal and vertical angular pointing fluctuations in 1 h are measured to be 1.89 and $2.45~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{rad}$ , respectively. The moderate repetition rate and the good stability are desirable characteristics for laser–matter interactions. The SULF-1 PW laser beamline is now in the phase of commissioning, and preliminary experiments of particle acceleration and secondary radiation under 300–400 TW/0.1 Hz laser condition have been implemented. The progress on the experiments and the daily stable operation of the laser demonstrate the availability of the SULF-1 PW beamline.