Theoretical analysis of the performance of an atomic iodine laser amplifier chain

The performance of an atomic iodine laser amplifier chain with output pulse powers close to 2 TW is analyzed by a numerical solution of the Maxwell-Bloch equations. Two subjects are discussed in detail. The first one refers to the pulse compression occurring in the chain as a result of saturation and some related aspects such as damage to components, self-focusing, correlations between the input and output pulse shapes, and the means of pulse shape control. The second deals with various schemes suited for achieving extraction efficiencies of about or larger than 55 percent. These include the single-pass and double-pass schemes, pulses with two carrier frequencies, and a variation of the pulse carrier frequency. In addition, the response of the chain to a variation of those parameters which are most easily subject to change in a routine operation is investigated.