Coherent addition of gratings for chirped-pulse-amplified lasers based on near-field and far-field measurements

The development of phased-array grating compressor is a crucial issue for high-energy,ultra-short pulse petawatt-class lasers.Almost all systems have adopted a tiled-grating approach to meet the size requirements for the compression gratings.We present a computer-control test system utilizing near-field interference and far-field focusing capable of monitoring and fast correcting tiled errors of the grating compressor.In this system,the tilt/tip errors between the two gratings are determined by the Fourier transform (FT) of the individual interference fringe,and the piston errors are determined by the ratio of the two primary peaks formed in the far-field pattern as a function of the piston difference.Monochromatic grating phasing is achieved experimentally and pulse compression is demonstrated with a tiled grating system.     

Demonstration of large-aperture tiled-grating compressors for high-energy, petawatt-class, chirped-pulse amplification systems

Two large-aperture tiled-grating (1.5 m) compressors, each consisting of four sets of tiled-grating assemblies, have been built for the OMEGA EP high-energy petawatt-class laser system. The techniques used for tiling individual tiled-grating assemblies and for optimizing the overall performance of a tiled-grating compressor are described. Both compressors achieved subpicosecond pulse duration without tiling-induced temporal degradation. A ray-tracing model predicted that the static wavefront of the grating tiles dominated focal-spot degradations when submicroradian tiling accuracy is achieved. The tiled-grating compressors delivered a tighter focal spot compared with subaperture grating compressors with single central tiles.     

有限束宽下光栅对压缩的理论研究

给出了入射脉冲为有限束宽时,光栅对压缩的理论模型。并据此分析了脉冲高斯光束单次及两次通过光栅对时的变换特性,以及高阶色散对脉冲压缩的影响。     

Transmission of radiation with rapid temporal modulation through optical instruments

We examine theoretically the transmission of radiation with rapid temporal modulation (short pulse or rapid statistical modulation) through a grating or focused by a concave mirror (lens). It is shown that the far-field diffraction patterns from a grating may be considerably modified because of such rapid modulation and that these patterns may be used for estimation of the coherence time or the pulse duration. In the case of focusing, the focal spot size slightly increases on decreasing the pulse duration.     

拼接光栅压缩器中光栅拼缝对脉冲信噪比的影响

针对平行光栅对结构的压缩器和圆形入射光束,建立了光栅拼缝所引起的光谱剪切的数学模型,并模拟了该光谱剪切对压缩脉冲信噪比的影响.与双曲正割型脉冲相比,光栅拼缝对高斯型脉冲信噪比的影响较小.随着光栅拼缝宽度的减小与光束口径的增大,压缩脉冲信噪比得到提高.对于确定的拼接光栅压缩器和光束直径,当脉冲中心波长与光谱剪切中心波长(...     

Automatic phase-locked control of grating tiling

The development of phased-array grating compressor is a crucial issue for the high-energy, ultra-short pulse petawatt-class lasers. Several systems have adopted the tiling-grating approach to meet the size requirements for the compression gratings. Grating tiling need to be precisely phased to ensure a transform-limited focal spot when focusing the high-energy laser pulses onto the target. Monochromatic grating automatic phasing and performance maintaining are experimentally achieved with a far-field CCD camera technique based on a two-tiling system.     

Temporal Aberration of the Focused Inhomogeneous Wave from a Misalignment Parallel Grating Pair Compressor

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采用啁啾脉冲堆积的时间束平滑技术

成丝不稳定性是间接驱动靶丸均匀压缩面临的重要问题,10μm到100μm的靶面光强起伏对其影响尤为严重,须采用合理的束平滑措施加以抑制。提出用光纤系统对啁啾脉冲堆积,然后对组合脉冲做光谱角色散,利用焦斑不同时刻对应频谱成分不同形成的束平滑机制,抑制焦斑内的高频起伏。利用傅里叶变换方法推导出了光栅色散后的组合脉冲表达式。模拟结果表明,焦斑尺寸随色循环数和光栅色散方向上基准脉冲带宽的增加而增大。通过计算包含焦斑能量95%范围内的通量衬比度随时间变化的曲线,得出一个色循环、基准脉冲带宽0.3~0.5 nm下可以获得最佳的焦斑平滑效果。这种新型的时间束平滑方法结构简单且焦斑特性可调,这些优点使得它在提高靶面辐照均匀性方面具有重要的应用价值。     

Phase-locked control of tiled-grating assemblies for chirped-pulse-amplified lasers using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Multikilojoule petawatt lasers using chirped-pulse amplification are being constructed worldwide. Several systems have adopted a tiled-grating approach to meet the size requirements for the compression gratings. Grating tiles need to be precisely phased to ensure a transform-limited focal spot when focusing high-energy laser pulses in the target plane. A computer-control test system that uses a Mach-Zehnder interferometer capable of monitoring and correcting drift in the tiled-grating assemblies within the compressor is described. The differential errors due to eight gratings, within a compressor with four grating assemblies, were compensated by adjusting a single grating.     

拼接光栅压缩器的时域特性

在拼接光栅和拼接光栅压缩器的设计中,子光栅调节偏差不可避免,各维偏差与拼接光栅的时间特性之间的关系很关键。通过脉冲压缩理论分析得到各维偏差和聚焦脉冲时间宽度展宽之间的解析关系,从数值计算结果分析,面平行左右偏差对脉冲的时间宽度影响较大,必须控制在21.08μrad内;条纹密度差异对脉冲宽度的影响很显著,相对条纹密度的比值应控制在10-5以内;从消除角色散的角度分析,面平行俯仰偏差和条纹平行度偏差可以相互补偿,条纹密度差异和面平行左右偏差也可以相互补偿。     

Temporal dynamics of high repetition rate pulsed single longitudinal mode dye laser

Theoretical and experimental studies of temporal dynamics of grazing incidence grating (GIG) cavity, single-mode dye laser pumped by high repetition rate copper vapour laser (CVL) are presented. Spectral chirp of the dye laser as they evolve in the cavity due to transient phase dynamics of the amplifier gain medium is studied. Effect of grating efficiency, focal spot size, pump power and other cavity parameters on the temporal behaviour of narrow band dye laser such as build-up time, pulse shape and pulse width is studied using the four level dye laser rate equation and photon evolution equation. These results are compared with experimental observations of GIG single-mode dye laser cavity. The effect of pulse stretching of CVL pump pulse on the temporal dynamics of the dye laser is studied.     

阵列光栅压缩器的空域特性

 引入角度偏差、位移偏差作为拼接光栅系统的物理参数，定义了拼接光栅的孔径函数，利用傅里叶角谱理论研究了高斯脉冲入射拼接光栅压缩器后的远场分布特性。研究表明：出射脉冲仍然是高斯型脉冲，但包络中心发生偏移，偏移量由角度偏差量和光束口径决定;位移偏差引入的相位随着拼接光栅压缩器传递，其对远场焦斑的影响，取决于每片子光栅的非整数倍光栅常数的横向位移偏差和纵向位移偏差的综合作用。通过数值计算得到了各维偏差对阵列光栅压缩器空域特性的影响,计算表明:光栅面外角度偏差(俯仰左右)和条纹平行度偏差都必须控制在1 mrad以内，在此范围内，应将位移偏差控制在52 nm以内。     

大口径衍射光栅10 ps激光损伤阈值测量（英）

在采用啁啾脉冲放大技术的高功率短脉冲激光装置中,终端衍射光栅的损伤阈值是限制装置输出能力的瓶颈之一。提出了测量大口径光栅损伤阈值的方法。该方法通过在线监测采集大口径光斑的同发近场光强分布情况和相应的光栅损伤图像,并经过一系列后期图像数据处理,建立起能量与损伤点的对应关系,经过一个测试光斑便可获得所有通量下的光栅损伤特性。该测量方法对光斑均匀性没有硬性要求,为损伤测量装置中难以解决的光斑均匀性问题提出了新的应对思路和方法。     

Research on target uniform irradiation method using linearly modulated light and special grating dispersion

In indirect-drive laser fusion research, filamentation instability (FI) severely influences laser injection efficiency and beam pointing accuracy in hohlraum. Experiments indicate that high frequency modulations on the far field of the laser driver are responsible for the filamentation. To solve this problem, a new smoothing technique is proposed using linear modulation and special grating dispersion. The linear modulation was realized by stacking a series of 100 ps chirped pulses in fiber delay lines. The temporal smoothing characteristics of the focal spot adopting star and circular grating dispersion were studied. Simulation results indicate that both kinds of grating investigated restrained the high frequency modulations. The star grating has a better smoothing effect when compared to circular grating. The insertion of the star grating could realize “color” variation across the beam in the azimuthal direction and make the far-field pattern rotate with time. Therefore, the time-integrated focal spot would be smoothed in a more comprehensive way. This smoothing method bears the advantage of simple configuration, two-dimensional angular spectral dispersion and not enlarging the far field too much.     

少周期飞秒准径向偏振光的超快瞬变聚焦矢量场

研究了基于腔外螺旋相位调制获取高峰值功率飞秒准径向偏振光的方法,结果表明该方法所产生的并非完全纯净的径向偏振光,其径向分量决定了聚焦后纵场的分布,而径向和角向分量共同影响了横场的分布.根据Richard-Wolf矢量衍射理论模拟得到不同纯度下的少周期飞秒准径向偏振光在焦点附近的电场的时空矢量分布,发现其具有中心对称和震荡衰减特点,载波包络相位将对聚焦场的矢量时空分布产生显著影响,从而对飞秒脉冲与电子在聚焦场中的相互作用产生影响.研究结果可为进一步的激光粒子加速分析以及偏振转换器的设计提供依据.     

Diffraction properties of ultrashort pulsed beams with arbitrary temporal profiles by a volume holographic grating

In this paper, the diffraction properties of an ultrashort optical pulse with arbitrary profiles in time diffracted by a volume holographic grating are investigated using the modified Kogelnik coupled-wave theory. Simple analytical expressions for the spectrum and spatial profiles of the transmitted and diffracted beams are obtained. The dependences of the diffraction bandwidth, the Bragg selectivity bandwidth and the total diffraction efficiency of the volume grating on the temporal profiles of the input ultrashort pulse are investigated. For three different temporal profiles, numerical results of diffraction properties are given. It is shown that the temporal shapes of the input pulsed beams have been found to be an important factor in the analyses of the propagation characteristics.     

光学频率梳空间光谱分辨精度研究

光学频率梳的高精度光谱整形在微波光子学、光谱学及通信光学等学科领域具有广泛应用. 为了描述和评价光学频率梳光谱整形系统的光谱分辨精度, 使用光线追迹的方法对单光栅、平行光栅对、单光栅透镜变换和反平行光栅 对透镜变换四种结构的空间色散能力进行了理论建模和分析, 得到了输出面上不同波长的光斑间距和光斑大小, 设立判据得到系统的光谱空间分离能力. 计算结果表明, 使用后面两种色散结构更容易实现高精度光谱分离和整形; 波长较长、纵模间距较大、光斑尺寸较大的光学频率梳更适合作为光谱整形系统的光源; 光栅刻线密度高、入射角小、多次通过色散系统有利于得到更高的光谱分辨精度. 本文的分析和计算过程具有普遍适用性, 对基于光学频率梳的高精度光谱整形系统的实验和评价具有指导意义.     

利用CCD进行透镜焦平面的定位

设计了由全息光栅和CCD等构建的光电混合处理光路,实现对透镜焦平面的定位.采用反射式光学元件设计记录光路,制作满足特定空间频率的全息光栅,并利用质心法计算得到CCD采集面上光斑的中心坐标.     

大口径光栅拼接架动力响应控制分析

光栅拼接是解决光栅口径限制的有效途径,而结构稳定性成为光栅拼接研究中面临的主要难题.目前使用的光栅拼接架稳定性不能完全满足实验需要,为明确影响光栅拼接稳定性的主要因素,采用多通道振动测试仪对环境振动进行了测试,结果表明供热通风与空气调节(HVAC)振动是影响光栅拼接架稳定性的主要因素;采用实测功率谱作为激励,对光栅拼接...     

采用光栅角色散的宽带二倍频及聚焦特性分析

针对带宽为20 nm左右、中心波长为1 053 nm的线性啁啾宽带激光,分析了采用光栅角色散方式宽带二倍频的原理,讨论了光栅角色散性能及光栅加工误差引入的基频光位相扰动对二倍频光转换效率及聚焦特性的影响.研究结果表明:采用光栅角色散方式的宽带二倍频光的转换效率、脉冲宽度和带宽均明显增大;在0～22 nm基频光带宽范围内,二倍频光均可保持80％左右的转换效率;对于入射基频光带宽为22 nm的情况,光栅角色散率在30～80 μrad/nm范围内变化时,宽带二倍频转换效率均可保持在70％以上;基频光有位相扰动时,二倍频光带宽对二倍频聚焦光斑的主瓣影响不大,但对旁瓣有一定的匀滑作用,采用光栅角色散方式宽带二倍频的聚焦光斑旁瓣的匀滑效果更为明显.