Damage Of Optical Elements Research Articles

High-energy pulse stacking via regenerative pulse-burst amplification.

Here we present a coherent pulse stacking approach for upscaling the energy of a solid-state femtosecond chirped pulse amplifier. We demonstrate pulse splitting into four replicas, amplification in a burst-mode regenerative Yb:CaF2 amplifier, designed to overcome intracavity optical damage by colliding pulse replicas, and coherent combining into a single millijoule level pulse. The thresholds of pulse-burst-induced damage of optical elements are experimentally investigated. The scheme allows achieving an enhancement factor of 2.62 using a single-stage stacker cavity and, potentially, much higher enhancement factors using cascaded stacking.

Analysis of damaging effects of laser-plasma accelerated shrapnels on protecting glass shield

Analysis of the damage caused by laser plasma accelerated fragments of metal target was performed. Measured as well as calculated parameters of craters and shrapnel found in BK7 glass blastshield are presented. Method applied for the measurement of parameters of craters is described. Potential damage of optical elements by the so-called striking cores (high-velocity stable objects arising due to collapse of cones or some other target parts toward their axes) that can be generated in IFE related experiments is evaluated.