Title :
Contrast enhancements to petawatt lasers using picosecond optical parametric amplification and frequency doubling
Author :
Hillier, David ; Danson, Colin ; Egan, David ; Elsmere, Stephen ; Girling, Mark ; Harvey, Ewan ; Hopps, Nicholas ; Norman, Michael ; Parker, Stefan ; Treadwell, Paul ; Winter, David ; Bett, Thomas
Author_Institution :
Atomic Weapons Establ., Reading, UK
Abstract :
Nanosecond contrast of the Orion CPA beamlines is enhanced from 10-8 to 10-10 by inserting a picosecond OPA prior to the stretcher. In conjunction with frequency doubling post-compression this will enhance the contrast to ~10-18.
Keywords :
chirp modulation; high-speed optical techniques; optical harmonic generation; optical parametric amplifiers; optical pulse compression; solid lasers; OPA; Offner triplet stretcher; Orion CPA beamlines; chirped pulse amplification; contrast enhancemnets; frequency doubling; petawatt lasers; picosecond optical parametric amplification; pulse compression; Laser beams; Laser theory; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical harmonic generation; Optical pulses; Stimulated emission;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), 2014 Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Jose, CA
