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Tiled-grating compression of multiterawatt laser pulses
Arnaud Cotel1, Caroline Crotti, Patrick Audebert
1Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intense, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, CEA, UPMC, Palaiseau, France. arnaud.cotel@polytechnique.edu
Optics Letters
|June 19, 2007
Summary
A tiled-grating system offers a viable alternative to large, meter-sized gratings for compressing high-energy laser pulses. This mosaic approach successfully compressed multiterawatt subpicosecond pulses, demonstrating its practical application in laser technology.
Area of Science:
- Optics and Photonics
- Laser Physics
- High-Energy Physics
Background:
- High-energy petawatt lasers necessitate large diffraction gratings for effective pulse compression.
- Meter-sized gratings present significant challenges in terms of size, cost, and handling.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the feasibility of a tiled-grating system as an alternative to conventional large gratings for laser pulse compression.
- To demonstrate the performance and stability of a mosaic grating system for high-energy, subpicosecond laser pulses.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a 100 TW-class Nd:glass chirped-pulse amplification laser facility.
- Employed a two-grating mosaic system for pulse compression.
- Implemented a nanopositioning optomechanical system to ensure grating mosaic alignment stability.
Main Results:
- Successfully compressed high-energy pulses to 2.5 J, 450 fs (5.5 TW) in air.
- Achieved a beam size of 50 mm with an energy transmission of 63%.
- Preserved the output Gaussian spectrum without spectral clipping or modulation, confirming system fidelity.
Conclusions:
- A tiled-grating system is a practical and effective solution for compressing high-energy laser pulses, overcoming limitations of single large gratings.
- The demonstrated nanopositioning system ensures the stability required for reliable operation of mosaic grating configurations.
- This technology advances the development of compact and efficient high-power laser systems.
