20TW超短脉冲激光装置的研制

 介绍了基于啁啾脉冲放大技术的20TW全钛宝石超短脉冲激光装置的研制。该装置的主放大器采用全像传递的空间四程放大构型，可以保持良好的近场分布和提高能量转换效率。主放大器的钛宝石晶体为30mm×15mm，6台调Q倍频的YAG激光器泵浦。压缩后脉宽50fs，能量1J，峰值功率可达20TW，聚焦功率大于3×10¹⁸W/cm²。     

1 kHz-0.1 TW高效率钛宝石激光放大器

介绍了一种高重复频率掺钛蓝宝石飞秒激光多通高效率放大系统.在抽运功率为23 W，入射功率为660 mW时，获得7.2 W的放大输出，放大效率达30%.经压缩器压缩后，获得单脉冲能量4.5 mJ,脉冲宽度为 38 fs，重复频率为1 kHz，峰值功率大于0.1 TW的超短超强激光脉冲. 关键词： 飞秒脉冲 高重复频率 啁啾脉冲放大     

全固态kHz啁啾脉冲飞秒激光放大器

要建造大功率超强激光系统,必须将nJ量级的种子进行放大,以得到mJ量级以及更高能量的激光输出.为达到这个目的,必须使种子能量指数增加,再生腔放大器是实现这一目的的良好途径;同时,为了得到更稳定的激光输出,须采用高重复频率的泵浦源.为此,设计了一种kHz重复频率激光泵浦的再生放大器,使用15 mJ的527 nm的绿光泵浦,得到了约2.3 mJ的800 nm放大激光输出,同时,对其输出激光的光谱特性进行了测量,将带宽为40 nm的种子注入后,得到了光谱带宽约为30 nm激光输出.     

Highly-efficient 20 TW Ti:sapphire laser system using optimized diverging beams for laser wakefield acceleration experiments

We developed a highly efficient and compact Ti:sapphire multipass amplifier that uses divergent seed beams to generate 20 TW/40 fs laser pulses with a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The laser system consists of a mode-locked oscillator, a regenerative amplifier, and a multipass power amplifier. The thermal lensing effect is very important in this system, especially in the multipass amplifier, as it limits the conversion efficiency. In order to compensate the thermal lensing effect, we calculated the optimum divergence of the seed beam and used the result for the multipass amplifier, where the thermal focusing is taken into account. In this way, we achieved a very high conversion efficiency of 41%, which is close to the theoretical limit. The laser system was then used with a capillary gas cell to generate stable high-energy electron beams with electron energies of about 150 MeV and a beam divergence of 4 ± 1 mrad. In this paper, details of the laser system development and experimental results for electron generation are presented.     

100 TW级超短超强钛宝石激光装置

 介绍了基于啁啾脉冲放大（CPA）技术的100 TW级钛宝石激光装置SILEX-I。SILEX-I装置主要包括飞秒振荡器、Offner展宽器、多级放大器、以及对应的脉冲压缩器和靶室等。该装置可以输出5,30,100 TW级3个功率段,并分别配套相应的靶室系统,可以满足多种物理实验的需求。目前该装置的末级输出峰值功率达到286 TW,脉宽29.8 fs,靶面聚焦功率密度达到3.36×1020 W/cm²。     

TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置中的同步控制

讨论了TW级飞秒激光放大装置中的同步时序系统原理,介绍了自行设计并建造的3套频率成分各异的TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置,其中“极光Ⅱ” 和“Titan”为两级放大系统,前者预放大与主放大重复频率均为10 Hz,后者采用1 kHz的预放大和10 Hz的主放大,“极光Ⅲ”为多级放大系统,预放大重复频率为10 Hz,主放大分别为1 Hz和15 min输出一发。针对各个放大装置的不同特点和对同步精度的具体要求,自行设计并建造了不同的同步时序控制系统,实现了各个激光放大系统的有效运转,同步精度达到200 ps。     

TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置中的同步控制

讨论了TW级飞秒激光放大装置中的同步时序系统原理,介绍了自行设计并建造的3套频率成分各异的TW级钛宝石飞秒激光放大装置,其中极光Ⅱ和Titan为两级放大系统,前者预放大与主放大重复频率均为10 Hz,后者采用1 kHz的预放大和10 Hz的主放大,极光Ⅲ为多级放大系统,预放大重复频率为10 Hz,主放大分别为1 Hz和15 min输出一发。针对各个放大装置的不同特点和对同步精度的具体要求,自行设计并建造了不同的同步时序控制系统,实现了各个激光放大系统的有效运转,同步精度达到200 ps。     

Broadband, high gain two-stage optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier using BBO crystals for a femtosecond high-power Ti:sapphire laser system

We design a two-stage non-collinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier using BBO crystals for a high-power Ti:sapphire laser system, and numerically analyze the output characteristics of the OPCPA system. We find optimal phase-matching conditions and calculate the parametric gains as a function of pump intensity and interaction length. By constructing a two-stage OPCPA system using two BBO crystals, we obtain 12 mJ output energy corresponding to a high gain of 10⁷, a pulse duration of 37 fs, and a contrast ratio of 5×10⁻⁸.     

Development of a Joule‐class Yb:YAG amplifier and its implementation in a CPA system generating 1 TW pulses

In this paper the development and implementation of a novel amplifier setup as an additional stage for the CPA pump laser of the Petawatt Field Synthesizer, currently developed at the Max‐Planck‐Institute of Quantum Optics, is presented. This amplifier design comprises 20 relay‐imaged passes through the active medium which are arranged in rotational symmetry. As the gain material, an in‐house‐developed Yb:YAG active‐mirror is used. With this setup, stretched 4 ns seed pulses are amplified to output energies exceeding 1 J with repetition rates of up to 2 Hz. Furthermore, a spectral bandwidth of 3.5 nm (FWHM) is maintained during amplification and the compression of the pulses down to their Fourier‐limit of 740 fs is achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of 1 TW pulses generated via CPA in diode‐pumped Yb:YAG.     

Seven-terawatt Ti:sapphire laser system operating at 50 Hz with high beam quality for laser Compton femtosecond X-ray generation

We present a 7-TW Ti:sapphire laser system operating at 50 Hz for laser Compton femtosecond X-ray generation. This laser system delivers 8.4 W of average output power at a repetition rate of 50 Hz with a pulse width of 24 fs. It demonstrates successful management using a dynamically stable resonator in the regenerative amplifier and compensation for thermal lensing by a convex mirror in a ring-type four-pass power amplifier. We also present the results of closed-loop corrections for distorted wavefronts of amplified and compressed laser pulses, using an adaptive optical system consisting of a Shack–Hartmann-type wavefront sensor and a deformable mirror. This closed-loop correction results in dramatic improvements, reducing wavefront distortions below 0.05 λ rms. Received: 31 October 2002 / Revised version: 3 March 2003 / Published online: 5 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-298/61-3349, E-mail: ito@festa.or.jp     

Numerical simulation of gain narrowing control by hybrid amplifiers chain based on Ti:sapphire and Ti:chrysoberyl

A hybrid amplifier chain composed of Ti:chrysoberyl and Ti:sapphire is proposed to control spectral gain narrowing in this letter. The Ti:chrysoberyl crystal is employed as the host material of the frontier amplification stage with the polarization parallel to a axis. According to the numerical simulation, the seeding pulse with a proper wavelength center is required to generate a broader spectrum, and spectra broader than 120 nm are available with total net gain from 10⁴ to 10¹⁰. The simulation proves that the amplified spectrum can even support pulse shorter than the seed pulse.     

PW级掺钛蓝宝石激光放大器中横向寄生振荡控制

介绍了目前世界上在建的第一台掺钛蓝宝石激光系统中大口径晶体内横向寄生振荡的抑制方法。采用一种掺炭的热塑料MeltMount 1.704作为折射率匹配材料,掺入炭粉作为吸收体。理论上它可以将晶体中的寄生振荡阈值从13增加到2100。     

PW级掺钛蓝宝石激光放大器中横向寄生振荡控制

 介绍了目前世界上在建的第一台掺钛蓝宝石激光系统中大口径晶体内横向寄生振荡的抑制方法。采用一种掺炭的热塑料MeltMount 1.704作为折射率匹配材料，掺入炭粉作为吸收体。理论上它可以将晶体中的寄生振荡阈值从13增加到2100。     

飞秒超强激光多通预放大过程中的脉冲信噪比研究

从啁啾脉冲放大的基本理论出发,详细计算了啁啾脉冲在多通预放大中各个时间点的增益情况,并设计了一个十通预放大器进行了实验研究. 结果显示,在抽运通量为1.6 J/cm²的非饱和放大情况下,种子脉冲经过十通预放大之后信噪比由10^-5提高到10^-7. 这表明在非饱和抽运通量下,多通预放大器可以有效提高激光脉冲的信噪比. 关键词： 多通预放大 信噪比 飞秒钛宝石激光器     

Laser-induced damage of high reflectors for Ti:sapphire laser system

A broadband (～ 176 nm, R ＞ 98%, λ0 = 800 nm) and high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT =2.4 J/cm2) TiO2/HfO2/SiO2 high reflector (HR) for Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system is fabricated by the electron beam evaporation. The refractive index and extinction coefficient of TiO2 and HfO2 films are calculated from single-layer films' transmittance spectra. The properties of HR are mainly determined by the high refractive index material. The high refractive index leads to wide bandwidth. A low extinction coefficient indicates low absorption and high LIDT. The possible damage mechanism of HR is discussed.     

Noncollinear optical parametric amplification in lithium triborate seeded by a cw Ti:sapphire laser

Experimental investigations of a type-I noncollinear phase-matched optical parametric amplification based on lithium triborate, which was pumped by a 5-ns second-harmonic pulses from a Q-switched Nd:YAG, seeded by a cw Ti:sapphire laser at 800 nm, was presented. The experiments generated 2-ns signal output pulses at 800 nm, the maximum signal output pulse energy reached 19 μJ, the corresponding parametric gain was 44 dB. Furthermore, the experiments demonstrate that the 65 nm-FWHM parametric fluorescence gain spectrum could also be observed. A quantitative account of the ultrabroadband parametric fluorescence gain spectrum was given with our theory. The experimental measurements are in agreement with theoretical calculations.     

High-contrast 1.16 PW Ti:sapphire laser system combined with a doubled chirped-pulse amplification scheme and a femtosecond optical-parametric amplifier

Based on a combined scheme of doubled chirped-pulse amplification and a femtosecond noncollinear optical-parametric amplifier, a high-contrast femtosecond laser pulse with energy of up to 32.3 J has been generated by improving the gain efficiency and boosting the pump energy to 120 J in the final amplifier. Our measurements show that the contrast ratio of the main laser pulse is around 10(10) within the time scale of -400 ps and the duration of compressed pulse is 27.9 fs, corresponding to a peak power of 1.16 PW.     

用钛宝石再生放大器产生高重复率啁啾脉冲列

针对啁啾脉冲放大技术建成的钛宝石激光装置，提出一种获得高重复率激光脉冲列的方法.通过改变钛宝石再生放大器中泡克耳斯盒电光开关的传统工作模式，使得腔内放大的脉冲从某特定时刻起，每当在腔内往返一次就以一定的倒出比例（倒出率）倒出腔内脉冲能量的一部分，从而可以在有限的时间段内产生高重复率的啁啾激光脉冲列.基于Franz-Nodvik放大理论，建立了该高重复率再生放大器的理论模型，通过数值计算，系统地分析了初始增益、倒出时刻、倒出率对输出的脉冲序列的影响.在抽运功率为35mJ、倒出率为1/2的实验条件下，通过腔外的脉冲数量选择器，在一个抽运周期内的有限时间段内已获得了14个幅度相近、单脉冲能量约为0.02mJ、重复率为100MHz的啁啾脉冲序列.从此啁啾脉冲列中选取数个脉冲，通过10TW级的激光系统放大和压缩，已获得100MHz重复率的飞秒太瓦级脉冲列. 关键词： 高重复率 多通放大 啁啾脉冲放大 钛宝石激光器     

Measurement of thermal lensing in a power amplifier of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser

We have measured detailed thermal lensing in a power amplifier of a terawatt Ti:sapphire laser operating at 50 Hz. The thermal lensing in the amplifier was evaluated by measuring the optical path difference (OPD) using a Shack–Hartmann-type wavefront sensor. It was found that the radial dependence of the OPD was almost quadratic in the pumping region, despite inhomogeneous pumping. Therefore, a simple spherical lens or convex mirror effectively compensates for the thermal lens in our amplifier. We found that the thermal lens profile was temporally stable, and did not degrade the pointing stability of the amplified laser pulses. We also found that the time constant of the thermal distortion in our power amplifier was approximately 0.5 s. Received: 3 September 2001 / Revised version: 23 January 2002 / Published online: 14 March 2002     

High-repetition-rate 12 fs pulse amplification by a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system

We demonstrate the direct generation of 12 fs pulses from a Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier system at a 1 kHz repetition rate utilizing properly designed broadband components for chirped-pulse amplification. Optimized designs of a regenerative amplifier with a multilayer gain-narrowing compensator and an adaptive dispersion compensator with a spatial light modulator contribute to the shorter pulse amplification.