Sergey A. Chizhov

Picosecond, terawatt, all-Nd:glass CPA laser system

Abstract An all-Nd:glass fiberless chirped-pulse-amplification laser system capable of producing 1.2 ps pulses of 2 TW in power is presented. A potential for obtaining a high (≥ 10 8 ) long-time scale contrast ratio of a pulse by the use of an electro-optic deflector as well as good focusability of a high-power beam of rectangular cross-section produced by a single-pass grating compressor are demonstrated.

Repetitively pulsed solid-state laser system with SBS pulse compression

A repetitively pulsed solid-state laser system with a new version of a pulse compression scheme based on stimulated Brillouin scattering is proposed. The scheme allows us to work in a wide energy range from 100 mJ to several Joules, with a compressed pulse as short as 150–300 ps.

1-TW Nd:glass laser system

The construction of 1 TW Nd:glass laser system with pulse compression is described. The laser system consists of master oscillator with self-mode locking and negative feed-back, stretcher, regenerative amplifier, two preamplifiers, amplifier chain and diffraction gratings compressor. The possibilities of improving the laser system parameters are discussed.

Compression of high-energy laser pulses after self-phase modulation in a bulk nonlinear medium

The use of self phase modulation for spectrum broadening with subsequent pulse compression by diffraction gratings allow to compress high energy laser pulses in wide range of pulse lengths. We have discussed different feasibility of such method for pulse shortening.

High-peak and average-power Nd:YLF-Nd:glass laser system with SBS pulse compression

The experimental study of Nd:YLF-Nd:glass laser system with SBS pulse compression has been carried out. The necessary conditions for producing the shortest Stokes pulse by the SBS-in this system were determined. Nd:glass slab has been used as a final amplifier in this laser system. Two-pulse final compression system has been implemented for compression of high-energy pulses.

Optical breakdown of transparent dielectrics by picosecond and subnanosecond laser pulses

While the optical breakdown of transparent dielectrics for nanosecond and longer laser pulses is well investigated theoretically and experimentally, the breakdown in a field of picosecond and femtosecond pulses has not been adequately explored. At the same time such investigation presents scientific interest, because short pulse duration can make some change for a mechanism of the optical breakdown. Also these data have practical importance for high energy laser development and management of temporal parameters of a pulse. Thus we have carried out measurements of the damage thresholds for pulse durations 450 ps and 3 ps (FWHM) for fused silica. Theoretical analysis is presented to explain experimental results. The possibility of applying the optical breakdown for pulse shortening is discussed.

Super‐strong laser field generation and their interaction with solid target in vacuum

We consider interaction of superstrong laser fields with condensed targets in vacuum. Our experiments were made on our laser system for the picosecond pulse generation, its recompression with chirp introduction and regeneration amplification. The results of laser radiation absorption and conversion efficiency into fast particles and X‐ray are presented for a broad range of parameters.

Nonlinear reflection of high intensity picosecond laser pulse from overdense plasma

The interaction of 1.5 ps FWHM laser pulses with solid targets at intensity 1015–1017 W/cm2 and contrast ratio 106 is studied. Red shift of a “mirror” reflected fundamental wave and its second harmonic depending on the incident laser pulse energy and angle of incidence are observed. They are associated with Doppler shift corresponding to inward movement of the critical density surface from laser pondermotive pressure. Back scattered light has nonlinear dependence from laser intensity connected with SBS and changing of plasma surface.

Terawatt short-pulse CPA Nd:glass laser

A high-power all-Nd:glass laser using fiberless chirped-pulse- amplification technique is presented. The laser is capable of producing 1.2-ps, 2-TW pulses while the effective divergence of the beam does not exceed 10-4 rad.