The L4n is a nanosecond-kilojoule laser beamline that delivers temporally shapeable nanosecond pulses at a maximum energy of 1.2 kJ. It was recently commissioned at ELI Beamlines and offers unique opportunities for high-pressure, high-energy-density physics, and laser-plasma interaction experiments, particularly due to its high repetition rate of up to 1 shot per minute. Compared to other kJ-class laser systems worldwide, which offer much lower shot rates, the L4n driven experiments will enable significant improvements in collecting data statistics. The results gathered during the first L4n commissioning campaigns, demonstrate the laser capability to deliver hundreds of joules every three minutes with excellent repeatability and clearly show its potential to make significant contributions to the field of high-energy density physics in the coming decades.
The limited aperture and damage threshold of the compressor gratings remains one of the bottlenecks in reaching higher peak powers for the current state-of-the-art laser systems. Object-image-grating self-tiling method provides a way how to double the effective aperture of compressor gratings by phasing them with perpendicularly positioned mirrors. This method is planned to be used in the main compressor for the L4 beamline in ELI Beamlines. A subaperture version of the main compressor was designed to test the feasibility of the objectimage- grating self-tiling method and to measure the temporal profile of the pulse throughout the amplification stages during the operation. The subaperture compressor was successfully implemented and temporal profile of the amplified pulse close to its transform limit was retrieved. The grating-mirror alignment was secured through the online measurement using an in-house developed Fizeau interferometer.
We report on the status of the re-commissioning of a high energy OPCPA laser system with programmable spectrum that serves as a frontend for a 10 PW laser at ELI-Beamlines. The OPCPA chain was developed by a consortium of National Energetics and Ekspla along with scientists of ELI-Beamlines.1 The laser system, consisting of three picosecond OPCPA stages, pulse cleaner, Offner stretcher, and 5 nanosecond OPCPA stages pumped by Nd:YAG lasers with programmable pulse shape (NL944, Ekspla), allows for precise spectral shaping while achieving high nonlinear conversion efficiency. Employing a subsequent Nd:glass power amplifiers (PA), the system was demonstrated to yield>1 kJ of energy, while maintaining broad spectrum of > 13 nm (FWHM). After recommissioning the OPCPA frontend in Dolní Břežany, an output energy of 4.3 J, flat beam-profile and good far-field quality has been demonstrated. The spectral shape has been optimized to support > 15 nm bandwidth and >1.5 kJ, consistent with 10 PW operation of the fully integrated laser system after compression.
State-of-the-art physics experiments are pushing the development of lasers with ultra-high peak power pulses. 4 PW pulses have been produced with TiSa [1] and 10 PW with the same gain medium is scheduled at LULI (Apollon) and at ELI-NP.
The other approach is to use Nd-doped glass as gain medium, whose interest is in its capability of delivering higher energy at the expense of a longer pulse duration. Based on this gain material combined with an OPCPA based front-end, a kJ-10 PW class laser has been designed and built.
The front-end, consisting of picosecond OPCPA, temporal pulse cleaning and nanosecond OPCPA, delivers pulses with excess of 4 Joules at 5 Hz with a shaped spectrum to pre-compensate for gain distortions in Nd:glass power amplifiers. Two liquid-cooled, mixed glass power amplifiers, namely PA1 and PA2, are used for further amplification. Up to now, they have been activated demonstrating 70 J at 1 shot a minute after PA1 and 1 kJ at 1 shot every 7 minutes for PA2. The Fourier limit of the spectrum is 150 fs meaning 6 PW capability after compression.
This energy level has been obtained with only 3 Joules seed energy, from the OPCPA and partial activation of PA2. Scaling of this result suggests that more than 1.7 kJ should be obtained leading to 10 PW after compression while the output spectrum will remain compatible with 150 Fs thanks to the OPCPA spectral tailoring capability.
Overview of progress in construction and testing of the laser systems of ELI-Beamlines, accomplished since 2015, is presented. Good progress has been achieved in construction of all four lasers based largely on the technology of diode-pumped solid state lasers (DPSSL). The first part of the L1 laser, designed to provide 200 mJ <15 fs pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate, is up and running. The L2 is a development line employing a 10 J / 10 Hz cryogenic gas-cooled pump laser which has recently been equipped with an advanced cryogenic engine. Operation of the L3-HAPLS system, using a gas-cooled DPSSL pump laser and a Ti:sapphire broadband amplifier, was recently demonstrated at 16 J / 28 fs, at 3.33 Hz rep rate. Finally, the 5 Hz OPCPA front end of the L4 kJ laser is up running and amplification in the Nd:glass large-aperture power amplifiers was demonstrated.
Tiled-grating compressors of ultra-short pulse multi-petawatt lasers are currently the only viable way how to meet beam size requirements and stay within the damage threshold of the largest available gratings. Recently, a method how to double the effective aperture of compressor gratings by phasing them with perpendicularly positioned mirrors has been proposed, providing simplification to the traditional grating-grating tiling scheme by reducing the number of alignment degrees of freedom. The drawback of the method lies in tighter requirements on adjustment precision and stability of the system making the alignment and monitoring a challenging task. Here we propose and analyze different approaches to precision control of mirror-grating phasing and present a comparative experimental verification of the alignment systems on a small-scale test bench.
B. Rus, P. Bakule, D. Kramer, J. Naylon, J. Thoma, J. Green, R. Antipenkov, M. Fibrich, J. Novák, F. Batysta, T. Mazanec, M. Drouin, K. Kasl, R. Baše, D. Peceli, L. Koubíková, P. Trojek, R. Boge, J. Lagron, Š. Vyhlídka, J. Weiss, J, Cupal, J. Hřebíček, P. Hříbek, M. Durák, J. Polan, M. Košelja, G. Korn, M. Horáček, J. Horáček, B. Himmel, T. Havlíček, A. Honsa, P. Korouš, M. Laub, C. Haefner, A. Bayramian, T. Spinka, C. Marshall, G. Johnson, S. Telford, J. Horner, B. Deri, T. Metzger, M. Schultze, P. Mason, K. Ertel, A. Lintern, J. Greenhalgh, C. Edwards, C. Hernandez-Gomez, J. Collier, T, Ditmire, E. Gaul, M. Martinez, C. Frederickson, D. Hammond, C. Malato, W. White, J. Houžvička
Overview of the laser systems being built for ELI-Beamlines is presented. The facility will make available high-brightness multi-TW ultrashort laser pulses at kHz repetition rate, PW 10 Hz repetition rate pulses, and kilojoule nanosecond pulses for generation of 10 PW peak power. The lasers will extensively employ the emerging technology of diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSL) to pump OPCPA and Ti:sapphire broadband amplifiers. These systems will provide the user community with cutting-edge laser resources for programmatic research in generation and applications of high-intensity X-ray sources, in particle acceleration, and in dense-plasma and high-field physics.
We report on the experimental implementation of a BB84-type quantum key distribution protocol over a 144 km free-space link using weak coherent laser pulses. The security was assured by employing decoy state analysis, and optimization of the link transmission was achieved with bi-directional active telescope tracking. This enabled us to distribute a secure key at a rate of 11 bits/s at an attenuation of about 35dB. Utilizing a simple transmitter setup and an optical ground station capable of tracking spacecraft in low earth orbit, this outdoor experiment demonstrates the feasibility of global key distribution via satellites.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.