Thales, Alsyom/Seiv and ELI-NP teams [ https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2022.11 ]
Nowadays laser systems worldwide deliver high peak power. We are talking about pulses in excess of 1 PW.
The paper published by High Power Laser Science and Engineering speaks about a performance that is difficult to match in the field of laser physics, i.e., generating and delivering 10.2 PW peak power laser pulses using the High Power Laser System (HPLS) at ELI-NP.
In the abovementioned paper, the authors tackled for the first time the topic of full energy compression and propagation, full aperture, and described laser pulses reaching beyond the 10 PW power level.
The present paper reports on the first demonstration of the production and propagation of full energy 10 PW pulses down to the experimental area where they will be used. For this demonstration, the full aperture and full energy laser pulses were compressed in the dedicated 10 PW compressors and transported in vacuum over 30 m distance to one of the experimental areas, using the Laser Beam Transport System (LBTS).
Schematic diagram of the setup showing relevant elements used during the tests: G1-G4, large size gratings of the compressor; M1, leaky mirror; M2 and M3, steering mirrors; WP, high optical quality vacuum viewport; BS, beam splitter; ENERGY, energy-meter; WIZZLER, self-referencing spectral interferometer.
Picture of the 10 PW beam dump installed for this experiment at the end of the transport line.
