High energy and high stability optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier for seeding the petawatt beamlines of the Orion laser facility

Girling, Mark; Parker, Stefan; Hussey, D.; Hopps, N. W.

doi:10.1117/12.853916

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The short pulse generation, stretching, and optical parametric preamplification constitute the optical pulse generation 2 (OPG2) subsystem, which is housed in a room below the laser hall and is described in [10]. It also includes a compressor to facilitate diagnosis of the subsystem performance.…”

Section: A Pulse Generation and Preamplificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Overview of laser systems for the Orion facility at the AWE

et al. 2013

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The commissioning of the Orion laser facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in the UK has recently been completed. The facility is a twelve beam Nd:glass-based system for studying high energy density physics. It consists of ten frequency-tripled beam-lines operating with nanosecond pulses, synchronized with two beam-lines with subpicosecond pulses, each capable of delivering 500 J to target. One of the short pulse beams has the option of frequency doubling, at reduced aperture, to yield up to 100 J at 527 nm in a subpicosecond pulse with high temporal contrast. An extensive array of target diagnostics is provided. This article describes the laser design and commissioning and presents key performance data of the facility's laser systems.

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Section: A Pulse Generation and Preamplificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The short pulse generation and preamplification system have been reported elsewhere [10] and will not be discussed in detail in this paper. Figure 11 shows the output near-field and spectrum of one of the OPCPA systems, exhibiting the expected top-hat spatial profile and flat spectrum.…”

Section: Short Pulse Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of laser systems for the Orion facility at the AWE

et al. 2013

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“…A single output pulse is selected by a Pockels cell and amplified using an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) pumped by a commercial pump laser. The OPA produces a 180 mJ (1.5% RMS), 18 nm bandwidth pulse with a super-Gaussian temporal and spatial profile [4]. The OPA output pulses are spatially shaped to a 30th power super Gaussian profile and then amplified by four-passed Nd:glass (Nd:silicate and Nd:phosphate) rod amplifiers followed by a series of Nd:phosphate disk amplifiers of increasing aperture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrahigh contrast from a frequency-doubled chirped-pulse-amplification beamline

et al. 2013

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“…Energy fluctuations from the unsaturated stage 1 are reduced in both stages 2 and 3, resulting in an output stability of ~2% RMS for an optimally aligned system. More details of the main stretcher and ns-OPA systems, as first commissioned before the introduction of the SPOPA, are provided in [9].…”

Section: Short Pulse Laser Description and Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive description of the Orion laser facility

Hopps

Oades

Andrew

et al. 2015

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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The Orion laser facility at the atomic weapons establishment (AWE) in the UK has been operational since April 2013, fielding experiments that require both its long and short pulse capability. This paper provides a full description of the facility in terms of laser performance, target systems and diagnostics currently available. Inevitably, this is a snapshot of current capability-the available diagnostics and the laser capability are evolving continuously. The laser systems consist of ten beams, optimised around 1 ns pulse duration, which each provide a nominal 500 J at a wavelength of 351 nm. There are also two short pulse beams, which each provide 500 J in 0.5 ps at 1054 nm. There are options for frequency doubling one short pulse beam to enhance the pulse temporal contrast. More recently, further contrast enhancement, based on optical parametric amplification (OPA) in the front end with a pump pulse duration of a few ps, has been installed. An extensive suite of diagnostics are available for users, probing the optical emission, x-rays and particles produced in laser-target interactions. Optical probe diagnostics are also available. A description of the diagnostics is provided.

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High energy and high stability optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier for seeding the petawatt beamlines of the Orion laser facility

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Overview of laser systems for the Orion facility at the AWE

Overview of laser systems for the Orion facility at the AWE

Ultrahigh contrast from a frequency-doubled chirped-pulse-amplification beamline

Comprehensive description of the Orion laser facility

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