Showing papers on "Chirped pulse amplification published in 1988"

Generation of ultrahigh peak power pulses by chirped pulse amplification

Abstract: Single picosecond pulses have been amplified to the terawatt level by a table-top-size Nd:glass amplifier by using the technique of chirped pulse amplification (CPA). The divergence of the beam is twice the diffraction limit, making the brightness of this source equal to approximately 2*10/sup +18/ W/(cm-sr), which is thought to be the highest brightness yet reported. The CPA technique allows the efficient energy extraction from extremely compact amplifier systems. Amplification of chirped pulses over nine orders of magnitude, i.e. from nanojoule to the joule level, has been demonstrated. >

Chirped pulse amplification: Present and future

Abstract: Short pulses with ultrahigh peak powers have been generated in Nd: glass and Alexandrite using the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique This technique has been successful in producing picosecond terawatt pulses with a table-top laser system In the near future, CPA will be applied to large laser systems such as NOVA to produce petawatt pulses (1 kJ in a 1 ps pulse) with focused intensities exceeding 10/sup /plus/21/ W/cm/sup 2/ These pulses will be associated with electric fields in excess of 100 e/a/sub o//sup 2/ and blackbody energy densities equivalent to 3 /times/ 10/sup 10/ J/cm/sup 3/ This petawatt source will have important applications in x-ray laser research and will lead to fundamentally new experiments in atomic, nuclear, solid-state, plasma, and high-energy density physics A review of present and future designs are discussed 17 refs, 5 figs

Tabletop Terawatt Laser By Chirped Pulse Amplification

Abstract: Single picosecond pulses have been amplified to the terawatt level by a tabletop Nd:glass amplifier by using the technique of chirped pulse amplification (CPA). The addition of a grating stretching stage made possible the generation and amplification of 1 ns chirped pulses, while preserving a final pulse width of 1 ps. Apart from being compact and powerful, the CPA laser provides a simple way of selecting the pulse duration, a feature which should prove very useful for high power laser-matter interaction study.

Ultrahigh peak power pulses from solids using chirped pulse amplification

Abstract: The amplification of subpicosecond pulses has traditionally relied on media of relatively low energy storage capability, such as dye or excimer amplifiers. The use of solid-state systems with high energy storage capability was not feasible because of the need to operate at levels far from saturation to avoid small-scale self-focusing effects.

Amplification of 1-ns pulses in Nd:glass followed by compression to 1 ps

Abstract: We reported earlier amplification of 1-ps pulses to the terawatt level using the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique with an extremely compact system.1,2 The Imperfect match existing between the dispersive properties of fibers and gratings3 imposes a maximum ratio of ~300 between the duration of the chirped pulse and the duration of the compressed pulse. Pessot et al.4 demonstrated a technique which overcomes this limitation by using gratings to both stretch and compress the pulse. We report here the implementation of this technique with the CPA Nd:glass laser system.4

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Soft X-Ray Laser Program

Abstract: The Laboratory soft x-ray laser program at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nova laser facility has been pursuing soft x-ray laser research with the goal of developing x-ray laser physics and the necessary technology for producing usable x-ray lasers. For the microscopy community, this means developing short wavelength (λ < 44 A), high power (108 W), highly coherent lasers to be used in microscopy and holography applications. Significant progress toward this goal has been achieved. A variety of x-ray lasers based on the collisional pumped Ne-like laser scheme have been developed and characterized in great detail. A new collisionally pumped laser utilizing Ni-like ions has been demonstrated with laser wavelengths as short as 50 A. This new scheme is scalable to sub 44 A wavelengths. Preliminary ionization balance experiments have also begun for recombination pumped lasers which should also readily scale to sub 44 A wavelengths. A laser cavity has been developed and demonstrated using multi-layer x-ray mirrors and beam-splitters. This, offers the possibility of improved laser coherence and efficiency. An applications beamline was constructed and used in a photo-ionization physics experiment in conjunction with Bell Laboratory. This was an important demonstration of the ability to make existing x-ray lasers usable and available for the general science community. Finally, x-ray holography using an x-ray laser has been demonstrated.