Ellipsoidal plasma mirror focusing of high power laser pulses to ultra-high intensities

Abstract

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Development of Focusing Plasma Mirrors for Ultraintense Laser-Driven Particle and Radiation Sources

“…The intensity enhancement achieved by the optics was utilised to increase the maximum energy of laser-accelerated protons from thin foil targets, from 27 MeV to 53 MeV, almost a factor of two higher than F/3.1 OAP focusing and consistent with TNSA laser intensity scaling [30,31]. The highest proton energy is achieved when the optics is optimally aligned, i.e., when the OAP focal spot spatially overlaps the FPM input focus (discussed further in [24]). …”

“…An example result is displayed in Figure 3b,c. The optic sensitivity to non-optimum alignment is reported in [24]. The typical output focal spot formed by the FPM (at f 2 ), displayed in Figure 3c, is 0.76 µm (FWHM), with 28.3% energy encircled within the FWHM diameter.…”

“…This was measured on every shot and factored into the intensity calculation. Due to the short focal length of the FPM, the final intensity achieved is also very sensitive to small misalignments, as discussed in [24]. Due care is therefore required in both the alignment and the characterisation of the incident laser beam to ensure that intensity enhancement is achieved.…”

P3: An installation for high-energy density plasma physics and ultra-high intensity laser–matter interaction at ELI-Beamlines

“…The parameter space of focused intensity and pulse duration for the experiments using EPMs and tightly focused OAP (only for I > 10 21 W=cm 2 ). Squares represent EPM experiments that have been done [126,127], and circles represent the parameters of tightly focused OAP. The value for the Texas PW stems from an approximate estimate based on typical laser parameters in conjunction with a f/#1 OAP.…”

Diamond machining of a single shot ellipsoidal focusing plasma mirror

“…The description of the design and test of a single use elliptical plasma mirror has been reported in. 3 We refer to this paper for details about the experiment. In this paper, the discussion will be mainly focused on the manufacturing of the plasma mirror by diamond machining, with an emphasis on how machining errors, such as tool offset or tool radius, can affect the mirror shape of fast optics and subsequently how these surface errors alter the Point Spread Function (PSF) created at the focus of the plasma mirror when in its operational configuration.…”