Extreme prepulse contrast utilizing cascaded-optical parametric amplification

It has been shown recently that an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier can be easily reconfigured into a cascaded-optical parametric amplifier (COPA), enabling complete prepulse removal and optical switching with a window defined by the pump pulse duration. We have demonstrated instrument-limited measurement of the COPA prepulse contrast >1.4 x 10{sup 11} using 30-mJ pulses. The COPA technique is applicable to all energy ranges and pulse durations. A convenient millijoule-scale implementation of this technique is presented using a single, large-aspect-ratio quasi-phase-matched nonlinear crystal

Optical switching and contrast enhancement in intense laser systems by cascaded optical parametric amplification

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) can be used to improve the prepulse contrast in chirped-pulse amplification systems by amplifying the main pulse with a total saturated OPCPA gain, while not affecting the preceding prepulses of the seed oscillator mode-locked pulse train. We show that a simple modification of a multistage OPCPA system into a cascaded optical parametric amplifier (COPA) results in an optical switch and extreme contrast enhancement which can completely eliminate the preceding and trailing oscillator pulses. Instrument-limited measurement of prepulse contrast ratio of 1.4 x 10{sup 11} is demonstrated from COPA at a 30-mJ level

Progress in Three-Dimensional Coherent X-Ray Diffraction Imaging

The Fourier inversion of phased coherent diffraction patterns offers images without the resolution and depth-of-focus limitations of lens-based tomographic systems. We report on our recent experimental images inverted using recent developments in phase retrieval algorithms, and summarize efforts that led to these accomplishments. These include ab-initio reconstruction of a two-dimensional test pattern, infinite depth of focus image of a thick object, and its high-resolution (~10 nm resolution) three-dimensional image. Developments on the structural imaging of low density aerogel samples are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, X-Ray Microscopy 2005, Himeji, Japa

Comparison of amplified spontaneous emission pulse cleaners for use in chirped pulse amplification front end lasers

We compare various schemes for removing amplified spontaneous emission from seed laser pulses. We focus on compact schemes that are compatible with fiber laser front end systems with pulse energies in the 10nJ-1{micro}J range and pulse widths in the 100fs-10ps range. Pre-pulse contrast ratios greater than 10{sup 9} have been measured

A grating-less, fiber-based oscillator that generates 25 nJ pulses

We report a passively mode-locked fiber-based oscillator that has no internal dispersion-compensating gratings. This design, the first of its kind, produces 25 nJ pulses at 80 MHz with the pulses compressible to 150 fs. The pulses appear to be self-similar and initial data imply that their energy is further scalable

Three-dimensional coherent X-ray diffraction imaging of a ceramic nanofoam: determination of structural deformation mechanisms

Ultra-low density polymers, metals, and ceramic nanofoams are valued for their high strength-to-weight ratio, high surface area and insulating properties ascribed to their structural geometry. We obtain the labrynthine internal structure of a tantalum oxide nanofoam by X-ray diffractive imaging. Finite element analysis from the structure reveals mechanical properties consistent with bulk samples and with a diffusion limited cluster aggregation model, while excess mass on the nodes discounts the dangling fragments hypothesis of percolation theory.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 30 reference

High energy mode locked fiber oscillators for high contrast, high energy petawatt laser seed sources

In a high-energy petawatt laser beam line the ASE pulse contrast is directly related to the total laser gain. Thus a more energetic input pulse will result in increased pulse contrast at the target. We have developed a mode-locked fiber laser with high quality pulses and energies exceeding 25nJ. We believe this 25nJ result is scalable to higher energies. This oscillator has no intra-cavity dispersion compensation, which yields an extremely simple, and elegant laser configuration. We will discuss the design of this laser, our most recent results and characterization of all the key parameters relevant to it use as a seed laser. Our oscillator is a ring cavity mode-locked fiber laser [1]. These lasers operate in a self-similar pulse propagation regime characterized by a spectrum that is almost square. This mode was found theoretically [2] to occur only in the positive dispersion regime. Further increasing positive dispersion should lead to increasing pulse energy [2]. We established that the positive dispersion required for high-energy operation was approximately that of 2m of fiber. To this end, we constructed a laser cavity similar to [1], but with no gratings and only 2m of fiber, which we cladding pumped in order to ensure sufficient pump power was available to achieve mode-locked operation. A schematic of the laser is shown in figure 1 below. This laser produced low noise 25nJ pulses with a broad self similar spectrum (figure 2) and pulses that could be de-chirped to <100fs (figure 3). Pulse contrast is important in peta-watt laser systems. A major contributor to pulse contrast is amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), which is proportional to the gain in the laser chain. As the oscillator strength is increased, the required gain to reach 1PW pulses is decreased, reducing ASE and improving pulse contrast. We believe these lasers can be scaled in a stable fashion to pulse energies as high as 100nJ and have in fact seen 60nJ briefly in our lab, which is work still in progress. At this level, even if the pulses are not perfect, post-oscillator pulse cleaning can be used to create a clean high energy pulse for injection into a peta-watt laser beam line

Scaling to Ultra-High Intensities by High-Energy Petawatt Beam Combining

The output pulse energy from a single-aperture high-energy laser amplifier (e.g. fusion lasers such as NIF and LMJ) are critically limited by a number of factors including optical damage, which places an upper bound on the operating fluence; parasitic gain, which limits together with manufacturing costs the maximum aperture size to {approx} 40-cm; and non-linear phase effects which limits the peak intensity. For 20-ns narrow band pulses down to transform-limited sub-picosecond pulses, these limiters combine to yield 10-kJ to 1-kJ maximum pulse energies with up to petawatt peak power. For example, the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) project at NIF is designed to provide kilo-Joule pulses from 0.75-ps to 50-ps, with peak focused intensity above 10{sup 19} W/cm{sup 2}. Using such a high-energy petawatt (HEPW) beamline as a modular unit, they discuss large-scale architectures for coherently combining multiple HEPW pulses from independent apertures, called CAPE (Coherent Addition of Pulses for Energy), to significantly increase the peak achievable focused intensity. Importantly, the maximum intensity achievable with CAPE increases non-linearly. Clearly, the total integrated energy grows linearly with the number of apertures N used. However, as CAPE combines beams in the focal plane by increasing the angular convergence to focus (i.e. the f-number decreases), the foal spot diameter scales inversely with N. Hence the peak intensity scales as N{sup 2}. Using design estimates for the focal spot size and output pulse energy (limited by damage fluence on the final compressor gratings) versus compressed pulse duration in the ARC system, Figure 2 shows the scaled focal spot intensity and total energy for various CAPE configurations from 1,2,4, ..., up to 192 total beams. They see from the fixture that the peak intensity for event modest 8 to 16 beam combinations reaches the 10{sup 21} to 10{sup 22} W/cm{sup 2} regime. With greater number of apertures, or with improvements to the focusability of the individual beams, the maximum peak intensity can be increased further to {approx} 10{sup 24} W/cm{sup 2}. Lastly, an important feature of the CAPE architecture is the ability to coherently combine beams to produce complex spatio-temporal intensity distributions for laser-based accelerators (e.g. all-optical electron injection and acceleration) and high energy density science applications such as fast ignition

Cryptotomography: reconstructing 3D Fourier intensities from randomly oriented single-shot diffraction patterns

We reconstructed the 3D Fourier intensity distribution of mono-disperse prolate nano-particles using single-shot 2D coherent diffraction patterns collected at DESY's FLASH facility when a bright, coherent, ultrafast X-ray pulse intercepted individual particles of random, unmeasured orientations. This first experimental demonstration of cryptotomography extended the Expansion-Maximization-Compression (EMC) framework to accommodate unmeasured fluctuations in photon fluence and loss of data due to saturation or background scatter. This work is an important step towards realizing single-shot diffraction imaging of single biomolecules.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Exact field ionization rates in the barrier suppression-regime from numerical TDSE calculations

Numerically determined ionization rates for the field ionization of atomic hydrogen in strong and short laser pulses are presented. The laser pulse intensity reaches the so-called "barrier suppression ionization" regime where field ionization occurs within a few half laser cycles. Comparison of our numerical results with analytical theories frequently used shows poor agreement. An empirical formula for the "barrier suppression ionization"-rate is presented. This rate reproduces very well the course of the numerically determined ground state populations for laser pulses with different length, shape, amplitude, and frequency. Number(s): 32.80.RmComment: Enlarged and newly revised version, 22 pages (REVTeX) + 8 figures in ps-format, submitted for publication to Physical Review A, WWW: http://www.physik.tu-darmstadt.de/tqe