Influence of Large-Aperture Output Wavefront Distribution on Focal Spot in High-Power Laser Facility

Abstract

To improve the focal spot quality, the output wavefront of the Shenguang-II Upgrade facility is divided into four types based on the spatial frequency and division band of power spectral density. The influence of each on the focal spot was quantitatively studied, and the results indicate that the spatial profile, energy concentration, and peak intensity of the focal spot are mainly affected by low-spatial-frequency, and the relative intensity of the sidelobes is greatly affected by both the low- and mid-spatial counterparts. The peak-to-valley value of the wavefront of the Shenguang-II Upgrade should not exceed 2.27λ under the requirement that 50% of the energy is enclosed within 3 times the diffraction limit (DL), and it should be less than 2.45λ under the requirement that 95% is within 10DL. Meanwhile, the Strehl ratio dropped to within 0.2 under these conditions. These results can be applied to focal quality improvement in designing an adaptive optical system, optical element processing, as well as focal spot prediction in high-power laser facilities.