Title: High Power Picosecond Laser Pulse Recirculation

We propose a novel high peak power ultrashort laser pulse re-circulation technique suitable for gamma-ray generation in Compton-backscattering sources. The two primary obstacles to higher average brightness and conversion efficiency of laser pulse energy to gamma-rays are the relatively small Compton scattering cross-section and the typically low repetition rates of Joule-class interaction lasers (10 Hz). Only a very small fraction (10{sup -10}) of the available laser photons is converted to gamma-rays, while the bulk is discarded. To significantly reduce the average power requirements of the laser and increase the overall system efficiency, we can re-circulate laser light for repeated interactions.

Frequency upconversion of laser-generated photons by inverse Compton scattering for applications such as nuclear spectroscopy and gamma-gamma collider concepts on the future ILC would benefit from an increase of average source brightness. The primary obstacle to higher average brightness is the relatively small Thomson scattering cross section. It has been proposed that this limitation can be partially overcome by use of laser pulse recirculation. The traditional approach to laser recirculation entails resonant coupling of low-energy pulse train to a cavity through a partially reflective mirror. Here we present an alternative, passive approach that is akin to 'burst-mode' operation and doesmore » not require interferometric alignment accuracy. Injection of a short and energetic laser pulse is achieved by placing a thin frequency converter, such as a nonlinear optical crystal, into the cavity in the path of the incident laser pulse. This method leads to the increase of x-ray/gamma-ray energy proportional to the increase in photon energy in frequency conversion. Furthermore, frequency tunability can be achieved by utilizing parametric amplifier in place of the frequency converter.« less

We demonstrate a nonlinear crystal-based short pulse recirculation cavity for trapping the second harmonic of an incident high power laser pulse. This scheme aims to increase the efficiency and flux of Compton-scattering based light sources. We demonstrate up to 36x average power enhancement of frequency doubled sub-millijoule picosecond pulses, and 17x average power enhancement of 177 mJ, 10 ps, 10 Hz pulses.

Inverse Compton scattering of high-power laser pulses on relativistic electron bunches represents an attractive method for high-brightness, quasi-monoenergetic {gamma}-ray production. The efficiency of {gamma}-ray generation via inverse Compton scattering is severely constrained by the small Thomson scattering cross section. Furthermore, repetition rates of high-energy short-pulse lasers are poorly matched with those available from electron accelerators, resulting in low repetition rates for generated {gamma}-rays. Laser recirculation has been proposed as a method to address those limitations, but has been limited to only small pulse energies and peak powers. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate an alternative method for laser pulse recirculationmore » that is uniquely capable of recirculating short pulses with energies exceeding 1 J. Inverse Compton scattering of recirculated Joule-level laser pulses has a potential to produce unprecedented peak and average {gamma}-ray brightness in the next generation of sources.« less

Fourth-harmonic Nd:YAG pulses illuminating a microwave linear accelerator`s photoinjector generates electron bunches in trains for FEL experiments, or in a single pulse for laser acceleration. A multi-gigawatt CO{sub 2} laser switched by the ND:YAG fundamental delivers 50-ps pulses for Inverse Cherenkov, Inverse FEL, or Grating Linac electron acceleration experiments.