The Vulcan 10 PW project

The use of ultra-high intensity laser beams to achieve extreme material states in the laboratory has become almost routine with the development of the petawatt laser. Petawatt class lasers have been constructed for specific research activities, including particle acceleration, inertial confinement fusion and radiation therapy, and for secondary source generation (x-rays, electrons, protons, neutrons and ions). They are also now routinely coupled, and synchronized, to other large scale facilities including megajoule scale lasers, ion and electron accelerators, x-ray sources and z-pinches. The authors of this paper have tried to compile a comprehensive overview of the current status of petawatt class lasers worldwide. The definition of 'petawatt class' in this context is a laser that delivers >200 TW.

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“…Two long pulse beamlines of Vulcan will be used to pump DKDP crystals to deliver 500 J in ∼25 fs to deliver 20 PW [129] .…”

Section: Opcpa Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Petawatt class lasers worldwide

Danson

Hillier

Hopps

et al. 2015

High Pow Laser Sci Eng

469

318

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“…This applies also for the ambitious OPAL and XCEL projects that seek to bring OPCPA at moderate bandwidth to the kilojoule-level. , LWS-pro [107], Ecole Polytechnique [126], LWS20 [44], ELI-ALPS Sylos [165], CELIA [34], ELI-ALPS HF [167], Apollon 10 PW [40], OPAL [168], ATLAS [169], ELI-NP HPLS [39], SIOM-SULF [12,38], XCEL [170], Astra-Gemeni [171], BELLA [32], Vulcan [43,172], POLARIS [173], PENELOPE [174], Texas PW [31]. It should be noted that the plot does not provide any information about the repetition rate.…”

Section: High Peak-power Systems Worldwidementioning

confidence: 99%

Generation and Parametric Amplification of Few‐Cycle Light Pulses at Relativistic Intensities

Kessel

2018

Springer Theses

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“…2 Taking them off line and configuring them for LIDT tests would be prohibitively expensive in terms of both time and cost. For fs lasers in general, there are three basic center wavelength options: 2 1054 nm (or 1030 nm) based on Nd: glass gain media; 910 nm based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification using KDP, DKDP, or LBO crystals pumped by the frequency-doubled output of Nd:glass gain media; 5 and 800 nm based on Ti:Sapphire laser technology. Of these, Ti:Sapphire-based lasers are the most available.…”

Section: Dilemmas In Lidt Tests Of Bbhr Coatingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 Our particular interest is in optical coatings, which we have designed and produced 4 to be suitable for broad bandwidth high reflection (BBHR) at 45-deg angle of incidence (AOI), and P polarization (Ppol) of PW-class fs laser pulses with 900-nm center wavelength, such as the fs pulses of the Vulcan Laser at the Central Laser Facility in the United Kingdom. 5 A standard requirement for such BBHR coatings is that they should provide reflectivity exceeding 99.5% as well as low group delay dispersion (GDD) over the entire spectrum of the fs pulses they are to reflect, so that the pulses do not suffer distortion or broadening of their temporal profiles on reflection. 3 Furthermore, because the BBHR coatings are important for reflection of high intensity fs pulses of PW lasers by their final off-axis parabola and fold mirrors, their laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs) must be high enough to ensure the mirrors will perform in the environment and under the laser pulse conditions of the actual PW laser beam train.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of laser damage tests on coatings designed for broad bandwidth high reflection of femtosecond pulses

et al. 2016

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Abstract. We designed an optical coating based on TiO 2 ∕SiO 2 layer pairs for broad bandwidth high reflection (BBHR) at 45-deg angle of incidence (AOI), P polarization of femtosecond (fs) laser pulses of 900-nm center wavelength, and produced the coatings in Sandia's large optics coater by reactive, ion-assisted e-beam evaporation. This paper reports on laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) tests of these coatings. The broad HR bands of BBHR coatings pose challenges to LIDT tests. An ideal test would be in a vacuum environment appropriate to a high energy, fs-pulse, petawatt-class laser, with pulses identical to its fs pulses. Short of this would be tests over portions of the HR band using nanosecond or sub-picosecond pulses produced by tunable lasers. Such tests could, e.g., sample 10-nm-wide wavelength intervals with center wavelengths tunable over the broad HR band. Alternatively, the coating's HR band could be adjusted by means of wavelength shifts due to changing the AOI of the LIDT tests or due to the coating absorbing moisture under ambient conditions. We had LIDT tests performed on the BBHR coatings at selected AOIs to gain insight into their laser damage properties and analyze how the results of the different LIDT tests compare.

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The Vulcan 10 PW project

Cited by 97 publications

References 3 publications

Petawatt class lasers worldwide

Petawatt class lasers worldwide

Generation and Parametric Amplification of Few‐Cycle Light Pulses at Relativistic Intensities

Analysis of laser damage tests on coatings designed for broad bandwidth high reflection of femtosecond pulses

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