Effect of bandwidth on beam smoothing and frequency conversion at the third harmonic of the Nova laser
Conference
·
OSTI ID:10183195
We present the results of experiments performed on the Nova laser system to determine the effect of bandwidth on third harmonic (3{omega}) frequency conversion and beam smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD). Our experiments utilized a wide bandwidth fiber optic cross-phase modulated (XPM) source and a narrower bandwidth microwave modulated (FM) source, each centered at 1053 nm (1{omega}). The FM source produced {approximately}2 cm{sup {minus}1} of bandwidth, modulated at 3 GHz; the XPM bandwidth was varied from 5 to 15 cm{sup {minus}1}, modulated by the temporally noisy output of a multimode Nd:glass laser ({le} 500 GHz). The FM beam showed no evidence of self-phase modulation in the laser chain produced by intensity fluctuations, and 1{omega} bandwidth was tripled upon conversion to 3{omega} (2--6 cm{sup {minus}1}). The 1{omega} XPM bandwidth increased by {ge} 25% due to self-phase modulation in the laser chain (16--22 cm{sup {minus}1}) due to it`s relative noisy temporal structure. Over 50% of the 1{omega} XPM bandwidth was transferred to the 3{omega} beam (22--36 cm{sup {minus}1}), yielding 0.13% bandwidth at 3{omega}. The maximum intrinsic narrowband 3{omega} frequency conversion obtained using a type-II/type-II KDP crystal array was 62%. The intrinsic efficiency obtained at the Nova 10-beam chamber is typically > 65%. We have developed broadband frequency conversion codes and broadband pulse simulations to model our results, and have obtained good agreement with experiment. Using a random phase plate without bandwidth, we obtained a smoothing level, {sigma}/I {approximately} 0.79, defined by the rms variance normalized with respect to the average intensity. This is less than the theoretically expected value of 1 for an ideal speckle pattern, and could be evidence of polarization smoothing as a result of focus lens birefringence. With spectral dispersion and RPP we demonstrated an excellent level of smoothing with the XPM source.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10183195
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC--111593; CONF-930159--56; ON: DE93019917
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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