1.15 PW-850 J compressed beam demonstration using the PETAL facility.

The 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 1 kJ 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. Issues encountered relating to damage to optics are also addressed.

Modeling of the petawatt PETAL laser chain using Miró code.

Miró software has been used intensively to simulate the Laser Megajoule (LMJ) with the treatment of amplification, frequency conversion, and both temporal/spatial smoothing of the beam for nanosecond pulses. We show that the software is able to model most relevant aspects of the petawatt PETAL laser chain in the subpicosecond regime, from the front-end to the focal spot with a broadband treatment of the amplification and compression stages, including chromatism compensation in the laser chain, segmentation and recombination of the beams on the second compression stage, and focusing by an off-axis parabola.

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

We 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.

Delay interferometric single shot measurement of a petawatt-class laser longitudinal chromatism corrector.

In this paper we present a self-referenced interferometric single-shot measurement technique that we use to evaluate the longitudinal chromatism compensation made by a diffractive lens corrector. A diffractive lens with a delay of 1 ps is qualified for a 60 mm beam aperture. This corrector was implemented on the Alisé Nd:glass power chain. We qualify the corrector and the Alisé power chain chromatism, demonstrating the potential of this measuring principle as well as the interest of diffractive lenses to correct longitudinal chromatism of petawatt-class lasers.

3D numerical model for a focal plane view in case of mosaic grating compressor for high energy CPA chain.

An important issue, mosaic grating compressor, is studied to recompress pulses for multiPetawatt, high energy laser systems. Alignment of the mosaic elements is crucial to control the focal spot and thus the intensity on target. No theoretical approach analyses the influence of compressor misalignment on spatial and temporal profiles in the focal plane. We describe a simple 3D numerical model giving access to the focal plane view after a compressor. This model is computationally inexpensive since it needs only 1D Fourier transforms to access to the temporal profile. We present simulations of monolithic and mosaic grating compressors.

Chromatism compensation of the PETAL multipetawatt high-energy laser.

High-energy petawatt lasers use series of spatial filters in their amplification section. The refractive lenses employed introduce longitudinal chromatism that can spatially and temporally distort the ultrafast laser beam after focusing. To ensure optimum performances of petawatt laser facilities, these distortions need to be corrected. Several solutions using reflective, refractive, or diffractive optical components can be addressed. We give herein a review of these various possibilities with their application to the PETAL (Petawatt Aquitaine Laser at the Laser Integration Line facility) laser beamline and show that diffractive-based corrections appear to be the most promising.

Synthetic aperture compression scheme for a multipetawatt high-energy laser.

High-energy petawatt lasers using the chirped-pulse amplification technique require meter-sized gratings to limit the beam fluence on the surface of the grating. An alternative, studied by many groups, is a mosaic grating consisting of smaller, coherently added gratings. We propose what we believe to be a new compression scheme consisting of beam phasing instead of grating mosaic phasing. This synthetic aperture compression scheme allows us to control the beam thanks to a unique segmented mirror equipped with three degrees of freedom. With this configuration, the beam is divided into small subapertures adapted to the classical grating size. After compression, these subapertures are coherently added before the focusing stage. Therefore the alignment processes are simplified.