Optimization of system design and performance to generate > 10{sup 20} Wcm{sup {minus}2}

Conference · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:113513

Edwards, C B; Barzanti, L J; Danson, C N ^[1]

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1. Rutherford Appleton Lab., Chilton (United Kingdom); and others

The authors report focused intensities of >10{sup 19} Wcm{sup {minus}2}, With subpicosecond operation of the VULCAN Nd:glass laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory using chirped pulse amplification (CPA) techniques. This paper describes novel aspects of the system including: picosecond and subpicosecond diode pumped oscillators; the use of a regenerative amplifier and system optimization. The ultrashort pulse generated from an additive pulse mode locked LMA oscillator was stretched from 0.5 ps to {approximately}200 ps in a double pass grating system and amplified from 1 nJ to 50 J, in phosphate glass amplifiers with a final beam aperture of 150 mm diameter. The stretched pulse was recompressed using a pair of gratings (300 x 150 mm, 1740 lines per mm) and focused using an off-axis parabola to avoid nonlinear effects from transmissive optics. The compressed pulse was monitored using a suite of diagnostics to determine the focusability, pulse width and spectrum. They describe the current system development program, which is in progress and designed to achieve intensities of {approximately}10{sup 20} Wcm{sup {minus}2} to target.

• OSTI ID: 113513
• Report Number(s): CONF-950226--; ISBN 0-8194-1724-6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
AMPLIFICATION
COMPRESSION
DESIGN
ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSES
LASER RADIATION
MODE LOCKING
NEODYMIUM LASERS
OPTICAL PUMPING
PERFORMANCE