Experimental demonstration of a synthetic aperture compression scheme for multi-Petawatt high-energy lasers

International audienceWe present the experimental demonstration of a subaperture compression scheme achieved in the PETAL (PETawatt Aquitaine Laser) facility. We evidence that by dividing the beam into small subapertures fitting the available grating size, the sub-beam can be individually compressed below 1 ps, synchronized below 50 fs and then coherently added thanks to a segmented mirror. " Split-aperture laser pulse compressor design tolerant to alignment and line-density differences

Overview of PETAL, the multi-Petawatt project in the LMJ facility

The status of the PETAL project is presented in this paper. The global architecture and performances of this facility are detailed with the first experimental results obtained on the LIL facility, and with the main steps which will allow shooting in the center of the target chamber. Some technical issues like wavefront correction, damage threshold in femtosecond regime and focusing are presented

115 PW–850 J compressed beam demonstration using the PETAL facility

International audienceThe Petawatt Aquitaine Laser (PETAL) facility was designed and constructed by the French Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) as an additional PW beamline to the Laser MegaJoule (LMJ) facility. PETAL energy is limited to 1kJ at the beginning due to the damage threshold of the final optics. In this paper, we present the commissioning of the PW PETAL beamline. The first kJ shots in the amplifier section with a large spectrum front end, the alignment of the synthetic aperture compression stage and the initial demonstration of the 1.15 PW @ 850 J operations in the compression stage are detailed

Overview of PETAL, the multi-Petawatt project in the LMJ facility

The status of the PETAL project is presented in this paper. The global architecture and performances of this facility are detailed with the first experimental results obtained on the LIL facility, and with the main steps which will allow shooting in the center of the target chamber. Some technical issues like wavefront correction, damage threshold in femtosecond regime and focusing are presented