339 J high-energy Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplifier for 10 PW laser facility.
TL;DR: The experimental results demonstrated that the parasitic lasing as well as the transverse amplified spontaneous emission of the homemade 235-mm-diameter Ti:sapphire final amplifier were suppressed successfully via the temporal dual-pulse pumped scheme and the index-matching liquid cladding technique.
Abstract: We report on the laser pulse output of 339 J centered at 800 nm from a chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) Ti:sapphire laser system at the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility. The experimental results demonstrated that the parasitic lasing as well as the transverse amplified spontaneous emission of the homemade 235-mm-diameter Ti:sapphire final amplifier were suppressed successfully via the temporal dual-pulse pumped scheme and the index-matching liquid cladding technique. The maximum pump-to-signal conversion efficiency of 32.1% was measured for the final amplifier. With a compressor transmission efficiency of 64% and a compressed pulse duration of 21 fs obtained for the sample light at a lower energy level, this laser system could potentially generate a compressed laser pulse with a peak power of 10.3 PW. The experimental results represent significant progress with respect to the CPA laser.
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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory1, University of Rochester2, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory3, École Polytechnique4, Ohio State University5, University of Michigan6, University of Jena7, Russian Academy of Sciences8, Osaka University9, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic10, Chinese Academy of Sciences11, Shanghai Jiao Tong University12, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology13, Colorado State University14, University of Szeged15
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a comprehensive update of the current status of ultra-high-power lasers and demonstrate how the technology has developed, and what technologies are to be deployed to get to these new regimes, and some critical issues facing their development.
Abstract: In the 2015 review paper 'Petawatt Class Lasers Worldwide' a comprehensive overview of the current status of highpower facilities of >200 TW was presented. This was largely based on facility specifications, with some description of their uses, for instance in fundamental ultra-high-intensity interactions, secondary source generation, and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). With the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Professors Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou for the development of the technique of chirped pulse amplification (CPA), which made these lasers possible, we celebrate by providing a comprehensive update of the current status of ultra-high-power lasers and demonstrate how the technology has developed. We are now in the era of multi-petawatt facilities coming online, with 100 PW lasers being proposed and even under construction. In addition to this there is a pull towards development of industrial and multidisciplinary applications, which demands much higher repetition rates, delivering high-average powers with higher efficiencies and the use of alternative wavelengths: mid-IR facilities. So apart from a comprehensive update of the current global status, we want to look at what technologies are to be deployed to get to these new regimes, and some of the critical issues facing their development.
559 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors review the advances made during the last decade, with a focus on theory and phenomenology, to account for non-perturbative physics (e.g. the Schwinger effect), with extreme intensities requiring resummation of the loop expansion.
80 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a two-arm hybrid high-power laser system (HPLS) able to deliver 2 × 10 PW femtosecond pulses, developed at the Bucharest-Magurele Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) Facility, was reported.
Abstract: We report on a two-arm hybrid high-power laser system (HPLS) able to deliver 2 × 10 PW femtosecond pulses, developed at the Bucharest-Magurele Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) Facility. A hybrid front-end (FE) based on a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier and a picosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on beta barium borate (BBO) crystals, with a cross-polarized wave (XPW) filter in between, has been developed. It delivers 10 mJ laser pulses, at 10 Hz repetition rate, with more than 70 nm spectral bandwidth and high-intensity contrast, in the range of 1013:1. The high-energy Ti:sapphire amplifier stages of both arms were seeded from this common FE. The final high-energy amplifier, equipped with a 200 mm diameter Ti:sapphire crystal, has been pumped by six 100 J nanosecond frequency doubled Nd:glass lasers, at 1 pulse/min repetition rate. More than 300 J output pulse energy has been obtained by pumping with only 80% of the whole 600 J available pump energy. The compressor has a transmission efficiency of 74% and an output pulse duration of 22.7 fs was measured, thus demonstrating that the dual-arm HPLS has the capacity to generate 10 PW peak power femtosecond pulses. The reported results represent the cornerstone of the ELI-NP 2 × 10 PW femtosecond laser facility, devoted to fundamental and applied nuclear physics research.
78 citations
TL;DR: An overview of the features and future prospects of X-ray FELs, including the working principles and properties, the operational status of different FEL facilities worldwide, the applications supported by such facilities, and the current developments and outlook for X-Ray FEL-based research are presented.
Abstract: Linear accelerator-based free-electron lasers (FELs) are the leading source of fully coherent X-rays with ultra-high peak powers and ultra-short pulse lengths. Current X-ray FEL facilities have proved their worth as useful tools for diverse scientific applications. In this paper, we present an overview of the features and future prospects of X-ray FELs, including the working principles and properties of X-ray FELs, the operational status of different FEL facilities worldwide, the applications supported by such facilities, and the current developments and outlook for X-ray FEL-based research.
65 citations
TL;DR: A novel scheme to efficiently produce collimated ultrabright γ-ray beams with photon energies tunable up to GeV by focusing a multi-petawatt laser pulse into a two-stage wakefield accelerator is presented.
Abstract: Recent developments in laser-wakefield accelerators have led to compact ultrashort X/γ-ray sources that can deliver peak brilliance comparable with conventional synchrotron sources. Such sources normally have low efficiencies and are limited to 107-8 photons/shot in the keV to MeV range. We present a novel scheme to efficiently produce collimated ultrabright γ-ray beams with photon energies tunable up to GeV by focusing a multi-petawatt laser pulse into a two-stage wakefield accelerator. This high-intensity laser enables efficient generation of a multi-GeV electron beam with a high density and tens-nC charge in the first stage. Subsequently, both the laser and electron beams enter into a higher-density plasma region in the second stage. Numerical simulations demonstrate that more than 1012 γ-ray photons/shot are produced with energy conversion efficiency above 10% for photons above 1 MeV, and the peak brilliance is above 1026 photons s-1 mm-2 mrad-2 per 0.1% bandwidth at 1 MeV. This offers new opportunities for both fundamental and applied research.
48 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the amplification and subsequent recompression of optical chirped pulses were demonstrated using a system which produces 1.06 μm laser pulses with pulse widths of 2 ps and energies at the millijoule level.
3,961 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors considered strong field effects in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas and high intensity laser and cavity systems related to quantum electrodynamical (QED) photon-photon scattering.
Abstract: Strong-field effects in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas and high intensity laser and cavity systems are considered, related to quantum electrodynamical (QED) photon-photon scattering. Current state-of-the-art laser facilities are close to reaching energy scales at which laboratory astrophysics will become possible. In such high energy density laboratory astrophysical systems, quantum electrodynamics will play a crucial role in the dynamics of plasmas and indeed the vacuum itself. Developments such as the free-electron laser may also give a means for exploring remote violent events such as supernovae in a laboratory environment. At the same time, superconducting cavities have steadily increased their quality factors, and quantum nondemolition measurements are capable of retrieving information from systems consisting of a few photons. Thus, not only will QED effects such as elastic photon-photon scattering be important in laboratory experiments, it may also be directly measurable in cavity experiments. Here implications of collective interactions between photons and photon-plasma systems are described. An overview of strong field vacuum effects is given, as formulated through the Heisenberg-Euler Lagrangian. Based on the dispersion relation for a single test photon traveling in a slowly varying background electromagnetic field, a set of equations describing the nonlinear propagation of an electromagnetic pulse on a radiation plasma is derived. The stability of the governing equations is discussed, and it is shown using numerical methods that electromagnetic pulses may collapse and split into pulse trains, as well as be trapped in a relativistic electron hole. Effects, such as the generation of novel electromagnetic modes, introduced by QED in pair plasmas is described. Applications to laser-plasma systems and astrophysical environments are also discussed.
930 citations
TL;DR: A hybrid Ti:sapphire-Nd:glass laser system that produces more than 1500 TW (1.5 PW) of peak power and focuses to an irradiance of >7x10(20) W/cm (2) is achieved by use of a Cassegrainian focusing system employing a plasma mirror.
Abstract: We have developed a hybrid Ti:sapphire–Nd:glass laser system that produces more than 1500??TW (1.5??PW) of peak power. The system produces 660??J of power in a compressed 440±20 fs pulse by use of 94-cm master diffraction gratings. Focusing to an irradiance of >7×1020 W/cm2 is achieved by use of a Cassegrainian focusing system employing a plasma mirror.
479 citations
TL;DR: 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 as mentioned in this paper, which has been constructed for specific research activities, including particle acceleration, inertial confinement fusion and radiation therapy.
Abstract: 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 .
464 citations
TL;DR: To the knowledge this result represents the highest peak power pulses yet produced in any Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system.
Abstract: We have successfully produced a laser pulse with a peak power of 0.85 PW for a pulse duration of 33 fs in a four-stage Ti:sapphire amplifier chain based on chirped-pulse amplification. To our knowledge this result represents the highest peak power pulses yet produced in any Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification system.
253 citations