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

摘要

Two large-aperture tiled-grating u00011.5mu0002 compressors, each consisting of four sets of tiled-grating assemblies,nhave been built for the OMEGA EP high-energy petawatt-class laser system. The techniques used for tilingnindividual tiled-grating assemblies and for optimizing the overall performance of a tiled-grating compressornare described. Both compressors achieved subpicosecond pulse duration without tiling-induced temporalndegradation. A ray-tracing model predicted that the static wavefront of the grating tiles dominated focal-spotndegradations when submicroradian tiling accuracy is achieved. The tiled-grating compressors delivered antighter focal spot compared with subaperture grating compressors with single central tiles. © 2008 OpticalnSociety of America