Wave front correction and focusing optimization of partially thermalized Nd:glass high power CPA laser

Author

Wattellier, Benoit ; Chanteloup, J.-C. ; Fuchs, J. ; Sauteret, C. ; Ji-Ping Zou ; Migus, A.

Author_Institution

Lab. pour l´Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, Ecole Polytech., Palaiseau, France

fYear

2001

fDate

11-11 May 2001

Firstpage

70

Lastpage

71

Abstract

Summary form only given. Because of spatial phase aberrations, ultra-intense laser systems with peak power in the 10 TW-1 PW range are difficult to focus close to the diffraction limit. Reaching this goal is an important task when trying to get the highest possible intensities (typically>10/sup 21/ W/cm/sup 2/). We previously demonstrated that the use of an adaptive optics (AO) technique has significantly improved the wave front quality of the LULI 100 TW chirped pulse amplification (CPA) Nd:glass laser. This AO system relies on a feedback loop coupling an achromatic three-wave lateral shearing interferometer (ATWLSI) as a wave front sensor, and an optically addressed light valve (OALV)-developed by Thomson CSF-as a wave front corrector.

Keywords

aberrations; adaptive optics; chirp modulation; laser feedback; light interferometers; light valves; neodymium; optical focusing; optical modulation; optimisation; solid lasers; wavefront sensors; 10 TW to 1 PW; 100 TW; Nd:glass high power CPA laser; achromatic three-wave lateral shearing interferometer; adaptive optics; chirped pulse amplification; diffraction limit; feedback loop coupling; focusing optimization; optically addressed light valve; partially thermalized; peak power; spatial phase aberrations; ultra-intense laser systems; wave front correction; wave front corrector; wave front sensor; Adaptive optics; Chirp; Feedback loop; Laser feedback; Optical diffraction; Optical interferometry; Optical pulses; Optical sensors; Power lasers; Pulse amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO '01. Technical Digest. Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-662-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2001.947474

Filename

947474