Development of an ultrahigh-peak power, sub-20-fs Ti:sapphire laser system

Summary form only given. Recent dramatic reductions in the pulse duration from chirped pulse amplification (CPA) systems have made it possible to produce multiterawatt level laser pulses while only requiring modest energy levels (<100 mJ). This is especially significant since it allows high repetition rate, terawatt lasers to become realistic laboratory tools for investigations requiring ultrahigh intensities (>10/sup 19/ W/cm/sup 2/). Even greater intensities are possible through further reductions in the pulse duration. In addition, the compactness of such systems will also depend on the efficiency of the amplifiers. We report on the design and construction of a compact Ti:sapphire CPA laser system that is capable of producing sub-20-fs pulses with peak and average powers of 100 TW and 20 W at a 10 Hz repetition rate.