Simulation of grating compressor misalignment tolerances and mitigation strategies for chirped-pulse-amplification systems of varying bandwidths and beam sizes.

Abstract

The effects of pulse compressor grating misalignment on pulse duration and focusability are simulated for chirped-pulse-amplification systems of varying bandwidths, beam sizes, groove densities, and incident angles. Tilt-alignment tolerances are specified based on a 2 drop in focused intensity, illustrating how tolerances scale with bandwidth and compressor beam size, which scales with energy when transformed via known grating damage thresholds. Grating-alignment tolerance scaling with grating groove density and incident/diffracted angles is investigated and applied to compressor design. A correlation between grating tip and in-plane rotation error sensitivity is defined and used to compensate residual out-of-plane angular dispersion, even for ultra-broadband pulses. Simulation of dispersion compensation methods after grating misalignment is shown to mitigate pulse lengthening, limited by temporal contrast degradation and higher-order effects for ultrabroad bandwidths.