Compact, simple and robust cross polarized wave generation source of few-cycle, high-contrast pulses for seeding petawatt-class laser systems

Patricia Ramirez (1, 2) , Dimitris N. Papadopoulos (1, 2) , Marc Hanna (1) , Alain Pellegrina (2) , Florence Friebel (1) , Patrick Georges (1) , Frédéric Druon (1)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry / Lasers
2 LULI - Laboratoire pour l'utilisation des lasers intenses

A compact and robust, dual-crystal cross polarized wave generation setup combined with a hollow waveguide filter is implemented to deliver few-cycle, high-contrast laser pulses sourced from a commercial multipass Ti:Sa amplifier. The initial 25-fs pulses with a temporal contrast of 108 are shortened to 10 fs with an improved contrast of at least 10^10. The single nonlinear stage for spectral broadening and contrast enhancement of a commercial amplifier serves as an ideal injector for petawatt-class laser systems.

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Patricia Ramirez, Dimitris N. Papadopoulos, Marc Hanna, Alain Pellegrina, Florence Friebel, et al.. Compact, simple and robust cross polarized wave generation source of few-cycle, high-contrast pulses for seeding petawatt-class laser systems. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 2013, 30 (10), pp.2607-2614. ⟨10.1364/JOSAB.30.002607⟩. ⟨hal-00904513⟩