Possibility of amplification of a femtosecond pulse up to he energy 1 kJ

Abstract

Optically excited active medium at XeF(A)transition(λ = 481 nm) is considered from the viewpoint of its possible application in ultrashort (down to 10 fs) light pulses amplification due to the extremely wide amplification band of the transition. Photolytical pumping of XeF(C–A)by pulsed discharge or shock wave radiation allows one to amplify light beams with the cross-section at least upto ∼1 m2. Taking into account strong bulk and surface nonlinear effects at high-power density, it seemsfeasible to get the output energy up to ∼ 1 kJ and the power density in the focal spot up to 1023 W/cm2. Consideration of spatial-time distributionof the excited XeF(C) molecules, formed in the XeF;2 photodissociation wave under the action of powerful optical pumping, shows a possibility in principle to design multipass amplifiers with the inversion running wave, which are intended for the amplification of ultrashort pulsesup to the energies noted above.