Abstract
A high power laser system called ‘ATTILA’ (Almost-Table Top Terawatt Intense Laser) (10 TW) is under development at the University of Milano, Bicocca. Once fully functional ATTILA will produce 10 J, 1 picosecond pulses, reaching the power of 10 TW. The system is based on the chirped pulsed amplification technique and uses Nd:glass single-pass amplification. The amplifier chain can be injected with two different oscillators: a Nd:YLF oscillator by Quantronix, stretched by an optical fiber, and a Nd:glass femtosecond oscillator by TimeBandwidth (Zurich), stretched by diffraction gratings, both delivering nanojoules pulses. A regenerative amplifier increasing the energy up to 1 mJ follows these. Recently, we have implemented an automatic control system for the stabilization of mode-locking in the Quantronix oscillator. This is based on the active control of cavity length and on accurate stabilization of mode-locker temperature. A PC using LabView software drives the system. We are now beginning the installation of an adaptive optics system with a deformable mirror in order to optimize the optical quality and focusability of the beam. Our final goal is to obtain an intensity of 1018 W/cm2 on target. This will allow the production of relativistic electrons and energetic protons, and the study of relativistic plasma physics and of matter in extreme conditions.
Published Version
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