Title :
Origin of the coherent contrast pedestal in petawatt laser pulses
Author :
Hooker, Chris ; Tang, Yunxin ; Chekhlov, Oleg ; Collier, John ; Divall, Edwin ; Ertel, Klaus ; Hawkes, Steve ; Rajeev, Paramel P.
Author_Institution :
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Lab., Didcot, UK
Abstract :
We demonstrate experimentally that the "coherent" contrast pedestal in compressed pulses from CPA lasers originates from the diffraction gratings in the pulse stretcher. The pedestal intensity correlates with the level of scatter from the gratings.
Keywords :
diffraction gratings; light coherence; optical pulse compression; optical pulse generation; CPA lasers; coherent contrast pedestal; compressed pulses; diffraction gratings; petawatt laser pulses; pulse stretcher; Gratings; Laser beams; Laser theory; Measurement by laser beam; Mirrors; Optical pulses;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), 2011 Conference on
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-1223-4
