Chirped pulse amplification of shaped laser pulses-minimization of distortion caused by self-phase modulation in amplifiers

Summary form only given. Many laser plasma interaction experiments with ultrashort laser pulses either require or can significantly benefit from the use of a laser pulse with a temporal profile, which has been optimized for the experiment. We will first demonstrate experimentally that self-phase modulation is a serious issue for amplification of shaped pulses in chirped pulse amplification (CPA) systems by showing greatly increased distortion during amplification of a pulse shaped for the fast ignitor experiment compared to the distortion during amplification of a transform-limited pulse. This distortion will be measured as a function of B-integral in the stretched pulse via spectral interferometry and FROG techniques. We then demonstrate a phase-only pulse shaping technique, which produces a stretched pulse free of rapid temporal variations and thus minimizes these distortions.