Zebiao Gan

High-energy large-aperture Ti:sapphire amplifier for 5 PW laser pulses

We report on the generation of 192.3 J centered at 800 nm wavelength from a chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) Ti:sapphire laser system. The experimental results demonstrate that parasitic lasing can be suppressed successfully in the final amplifier based on a Ti:sapphire crystal of 150 mm in diameter. An over 50% pump-to-signal conversion efficiency was measured for the final amplifier by optimizing the time delay of two pump pulses and enhancing the injected seed energy. With 72% compressor throughput efficiency and 27 fs long compressed pulse duration obtained at a lower energy level, this laser could potentially support a compressed laser pulse of 5.13 PW peak power. The experimental results represent notable progress regarding the CPA laser.

200 J high efficiency Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier pumped by temporal dual-pulse

We report on an experimental and theoretical study of a large-aperture Ti:Sapphire (Ti:S) amplifier pumped with a novel temporal dual-pulse scheme to suppress the parasitic lasing (PL) and transverse amplified spontaneous emission (TASE) for high-energy chirped-pulse amplification (CPA). The pump energy distribution was optimized and the time delay between each pump pulse was controlled precisely. Both the numerical and experimental results confirm that the temporal dual-pulse pump technique can effectively suppress PL and TASE. The maximum output energy of 202.8 J was obtained from the final 150-mm-diameter Ti:S booster amplifier with a pump energy of 320.0 J, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 49.3%. The compressed pulse duration of 24.0 fs was measured with a throughput efficiency of 64%, leading to a peak power of 5.4 PW. This novel temporal dual-pulse pump technique has potential applications in a 10 PW CPA laser system.

Temporal compensation method of pulse distortion in saturated laser amplifiers

We provide a tunable temporal shaping method of a laser pulse to compensate pulse distortion in saturated laser amplifiers. The solutions of our computer programs, which express pulse distortion because of saturation effects in pulse laser amplifiers, determine the optimum input pulse shape required to produce a top-hat target pulse shape at the output of the saturated laser amplifier. With the tuning ability of the method provided here, the top-hat target pulse shape can be maintained at different output characteristic energies relative to the saturation energy of the amplifier. Moreover, the relation is experimentally verified using a solid-state laser amplifier chain. The method will prove useful in applications of high-energy laser amplifier systems that require a top-hat pulse shape to be efficient, such as the pump laser pulse of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification.

High-order dispersion control of 10-petawatt Ti:sapphire laser facility.

A grism pair is utilized to control the high-order dispersion of the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Lasers Facility, which is a large-scale project aimed at delivering 10-PW laser pulses. We briefly present the characteristics of the laser system and calculate the cumulative B-integral, which determines the nonlinear phase shift influence on material dispersion. Three parameters are selected, grism separation, angle of incidence and slant distance of grating compressor, to determine their optimal values through an iterative searching procedure. Both the numerical and experimental results confirm that the spectral phase distortion is controlled, and the recompressed pulse with a duration of 24 fs is obtained in the single-shot mode. The distributions and stabilities of the pulse duration at different positions of the recompressed beam are also investigated. This approach offers a new feasible solution for the high-order dispersion compensation of femtosecond petawatt laser systems.

Parasitic lasing in large aperture Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier

We research some properties of parasitic lasing (PL) in the Ti: sapphire chirped pulse amplifier with the crystal diameter of 100 mm. The evolutionary process from the spontaneous emission to the PL and its influence on amplified output energy, spectrum, and beam profile are experimentally measured. The threshold of PL in the crystal is 22 J, and the output signal can still keep rising with the pump when the pump energy is below 38 J. The PL has no obvious impact on the output spectrum and beam profile besides the energy.

Comparison of high-energy multi-pass Ti:sapphire amplifiers with a different Ti-dopant concentration

We experimentally compare the output abilities of lightly and heavily doped Ti:Sapphire (Ti:S) amplifiers with diameters as large as 150 mm. Although a lightly doped Ti:S is more favorable to overcome parasitic lasing (PL) and transverse amplified spontaneous emission (TASE), the self-phase-modulation (SPM) effect becomes more pronounced when a longer crystal is used. Recompression of the amplified, stretched pulses can be seriously affected by the SPM effect. We then propose a temporal multi-pulse pump scheme to suppress PL and TASE in a thin, heavily doped Ti:S crystal. This novel temporal multi-pulse pump technique can find potential applications in 10 PW chirped-pulse amplification laser systems.

Improvement of the focusing ability by double deformable mirrors for 10-PW-level Ti: sapphire chirped pulse amplification laser system

Double deformable mirrors (DMs) with different actuator densities are cascaded to optimize the wavefront aberrations to improve the focus intensity of the Shanghai super-intense ultrafast laser facility (SULF), which plans to generate 10 PW laser pulse. The beam aberrations near the focal spot are corrected from 0.556 um to 0.112 um in RMS by a 300-mm DM with a large stroke installed after the compressor. After then, it is further optimized to 0.041 um using a 130-mm DM with a high spatial resolution working after the main amplifier. The corrected beam is focused to 2.75 × 2.87 um2 at the full width at half maximum (FWHM) with an f/2.5 off-axis parabolic mirror (OAP), which contains approximately 27.69% energy. A peak intensity of 2 × 1022 W/cm2 is achieved at the output of 5.4 PW, and it could exceed 1023 W/cm2 in the SULF 10 PW laser facility using an f/1.8 OAP.

Recent progress and research status of petawatt femtosecond lasers in SIOM

The latest progress towards a 10PW ultra-intense femtosecond laser at SIOM was reported. The energy of 192.3J was achieved with Ti: sapphire amplifiers, which could support a peak power of 5.13PW.