Novel all-reflective stretcher for chirped-pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses

Author

Banks, P.S. ; Perry, M.D. ; Yanovsky, V. ; Fochs, S.N. ; Stuart, B.C. ; Zweiback, J.

Author_Institution

Laser Programs, Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab., CA, USA

Volume

36

Issue

3

fYear

2000

fDate

3/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

268

Lastpage

274

Abstract

We describe the design and operation of an all-reflective on-axis pulse stretcher (with only four simple elements) that has achieved stretching ratios of over 40000. The design is insensitive to alignment errors and is simple to align. Optical aberrations in the system have an effect on the fourth-order phase term, but this can be used to compensate for material dispersion, resulting in a quintic-phase-limited chirped-pulse-amplification system.

Keywords

aberrations; chirp modulation; diffraction gratings; laser accessories; laser mirrors; optical design techniques; optical modulation; optical pulse shaping; reflectivity; telescopes; alignment errors; all-reflective on-axis pulse stretcher; all-reflective stretcher; chirped-pulse amplification; fourth-order phase term; material dispersion; optical aberrations; pulse stretching ratios; quintic-phase-limited chirped-pulse-amplification system; ultrashort pulses; Chirp; Delay lines; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical design; Optical pulses; Optical refraction; Optical sensors; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse compression methods;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.825872

Filename

825872