GW Peak Power Research Articles

A proposal for multi-tens of GW fully coherent femtosecond soft X-ray lasers

X-ray free-electron lasers1,2 delivering up to 1 × 1013 coherent photons in femtosecond pulses are bringing about a revolution in X-ray science3,4,5. However, some plasma-based soft X-ray lasers6 are attractive because they spontaneously emit an even higher number of photons (1 × 1015), but these are emitted in incoherent and long (hundreds of picoseconds) pulses7 as a consequence of the amplification of stochastic incoherent self-emission. Previous experimental attempts to seed such amplifiers with coherent femtosecond soft X-rays resulted in as yet unexplained weak amplification of the seed and strong amplification of incoherent spontaneous emission8. Using a time-dependent Maxwell–Bloch model describing the amplification of both coherent and incoherent soft X-rays in plasma, we explain the observed inefficiency and propose a new amplification scheme based on the seeding of stretched high harmonics using a transposition of chirped pulse amplification to soft X-rays. This scheme is able to deliver 5 × 1014 fully coherent soft X-ray photons in 200 fs pulses and with a peak power of 20 GW. Researchers describe a path towards 5 × 1014 fully coherent soft X-ray photons in 200 fs pulses reaching 20 GW peak power. The proposed amplification scheme is based on seeding stretched high harmonics using a transposition of Chirped Pulse Amplification to soft x-rays.

Amplification of multi-gigawatt 3 ps pulses in an atmospheric CO_2 laser using ac Stark effect

The 3 ps pulses are amplified to ~20 GW peak power in a TEA CO(2) laser using ac Stark broadening. Demonstration of such broadband coherent amplification of 10 μm pulses opens opportunities for a powerful mid-IR source at a high-repetition rate.

Coherently-combined two channel femtosecond fiber CPA system producing 3 mJ pulse energy

We present a fiber CPA system consisting of two coherently combined fiber amplifiers, which have been arranged in an actively stabilized Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Pulse durations as short as 470 fs and pulse energies of 3 mJ, corresponding to 5.4 GW of peak power, have been achieved at an average power of 30 W.

90 GW peak power few-cycle mid-infrared pulses from an optical parametric amplifier

We demonstrate a compact 20 Hz repetition-rate mid-IR OPCPA system operating at a central wavelength of 3900 nm with the tail-to-tail spectrum extending over 600 nm and delivering 8 mJ pulses that are compressed to 83 fs (<7 optical cycles). Because of the long optical period (∼13 fs) and a high peak power, the system opens a range of unprecedented opportunities for tabletop ultrafast science and is particularly attractive as a driver for a highly efficient generation of ultrafast coherent x-ray continua for biomolecular and element specific imaging.

High-repetition-rate sub-5-fs pulses with 12 GW peak power from fiber-amplifier-pumped optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification

An optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system delivering pulses with more than 12 GW peak power is presented. Compression to sub-5 fs, 87 μJ and 5.4 fs, 100 μJ is realized at the 30 kHz repetition rate. A high-energy fiber chirped-pulse amplification system operating at 1 mJ pulse energy and nearly transform-limited pulses is used to achieve ultrabroadband amplification in two 2mm beta-barium borate crystals. Precise pulse shaping is used to compress the pulses to a few percentages of their transform limit. Assuming diffraction limited focusing (d<2 μm), peak intensities as high as 10(18) W/cm(2) can be reached.

Fiber chirped-pulse amplification system emitting 38 GW peak power

We report on the experimental demonstration of a fiber chirped- pulse amplification system capable of generating nearly transform-limited sub 500 fs pulses with 2.2 mJ pulse energy at 11 W average power. The resulting record peak power of 3.8 GW could be achieved by combining active phase shaping with an efficient reduction of the acquired nonlinear phase. Therefore, we used an Ytterbium-doped large-pitch fiber with a mode field diameter of 105 µm as the main amplifier.

Optimization of high performance ultrafast fiber laser systems to &gt;10 GW peak power

We show that the peak powers of ytterbium-doped fiber chirped pulse amplification (CPA) can be scaled by at least 1 order of magnitude (in the transform limit) as compared to current systems by using a different spectral region of operation. A simple and fast model for saturated broadband fiber CPA systems is developed and applied to study the impact of the interplay between the spectrally dependent small signal gain and the saturation on the output bandwidth. The influence of self-phase modulation on the recompression of the pulse is discussed. It can be shown that the novel operation regime exhibits superior performance even if nonlinear effects are considered. The numerical results are significant for the design of the next generation of ultrafast high power fiber lasers.

High average and peak power few-cycle laser pulses delivered by fiber pumped OPCPA system

We report on a high power optical parametric amplifier delivering 8 fs pulses with 6 GW peak power. The system is pumped by a fiber amplifier and operated at 96 kHz repetition rate. The average output power is as high as 6.7 W, which is the highest average power few-cycle pulse laser reported so far. When stabilizing the seed oscillator, the system delivered carrier-envelop phase stable laser pulses. Furthermore, high harmonic generation up to the 33(th) order (21.8 nm) is demonstrated in a Krypton gas jet. In addition, the scalability of the presented laser system is discussed.

Fiber-amplifier pumped high average power few-cycle pulse non-collinear OPCPA

We report on the performance of a 60 kHz repetition rate sub-10 fs, optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier system with 2 W average power and 3 GW peak power. This is to our knowledge the highest average power sub-10 fs kHz-amplifier system reported to date. The amplifier is conceived for applications at free electron laser facilities and is designed such to be scalable in energy and repetition rate.

Compact fiber amplifier pumped OPCPA system delivering Gigawatt peak power 35 fs pulses

We report on a compact Gigawatt peak power OPCPA system which is pumped by the second harmonic of an Yb-doped fiber amplifier and seeded by a cavity dumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator. Picosecond pump pulses for the OPCPA are generated by spectral filtering and directly amplified to 1 mJ pulse energy in several fiber amplifiers, without the need of chirped pulse amplification. Since no stretcher and compressor is required, the pump laser is very compact and easy to operate. The two stage optical parametric amplifier delivers 35 fs pulses with 53 microJ pulse energy and 1.1 GW peak power at 40 kHz repetition rate. Additionally, the scaling potential of this approach is discussed.

Highly stable ultrabroadband mid-IR optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier optimized for superfluorescence suppression

We present a 9 GW peak power, three-cycle, 2.2 microm optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification source with 1.5% rms energy and 150 mrad carrier envelope phase fluctuations. These characteristics, in addition to excellent beam, wavefront, and pulse quality, make the source suitable for long-wavelength-driven high-harmonic generation. High stability is achieved by careful optimization of superfluorescence suppression, enabling energy scaling.

Echo-enabled harmonic generation free electron laser

In this paper, we systematically study the echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) free electron laser (FEL). The EEHG FEL uses two modulators in combination with two dispersion sections that allow one to generate in the beam a high harmonic density modulation starting with a relatively small initial energy modulation of the beam. After presenting an analytical theory of the phenomenon, we address several practically important issues, such as the effect of incoherent synchrotron radiation in the dispersion sections, and the beam transverse size effect in the modulator. Using a representative realistic set of beam parameters, we show how the EEHG scheme enhances the FEL performance and allows one to generate a fully (both longitudinally and transversely) coherent radiation. As an example, we demonstrate that 5 nm coherent soft x rays with GW peak power can be generated directly from the 240 nm seeding laser using the proposed EEHG scheme.

213 W average power of 24 GW pulsed thermally controlled Nd:glass zigzag slab laser with a stimulated Brillouin scattering mirror

We report a high-average-power and high-pulse-energy diode-pumped Nd:glass laser amplifier system consisting of two thermally-edge-controlled zigzag slab amplifiers and a stimulated Brillouin scattering mirror. This phase-conjugated system produces an average power of 213 W at 10 Hz in a 8.9 ns pulse (2.4 GW peak power) with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 11.7% and a near-diffraction-limited beam. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest performance from a Nd:glass-based laser amplifier system ever built.

High Pulse Energy, Rep. Rated Nd:glass Laser with Wavefront Correction

We report a high average power and high pulse energy diode-pumped Nd:glass master oscillator power amplifier system that is consisted of a thermally-edge-controlled zigzag slab amplifier and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) mirror for use of pumping source of ultra intense laser system. This phase conjugated system produces an average power of 213 W at 10 Hz in 8.9-ns pulse (2.4 GW peak power) with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 11.7 % and a near diffraction limited beam quality. To the best of our knowledge these results represent the highest average power achieved from a Nd:glass based laser amplifier system.

Technical Report: Operation of the Free-Electron Laser FLASH at DESY and First Scientific Experiments

FLASH at DESY in Hamburg, the first and currently only free-electron laser for VUV and soft X-ray radiation, started user operation in the summer of 2005. Currently it covers a wavelength range from 13 nm to 50 nm with GW peak power and pulse durations between 10 fs and 50 fs. Approximately 20 weeks of beamtime are provided per year for scientific experiments that are not possible on any other radiation source.

Development of the Repetitive Pulsed Power System for Spallation Neutron Source Beam Extraction Fast Kicker

The spallation neutron source (SNS) is a next-generation high-intensity beam facility. The extraction kicker system is a high peak power, high average power, high-precision pulse-waveform, low beam impedance, and high repetition rate pulsed power system. It has been successfully designed and developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY. The system consists of fourteen extraction magnet sections inside the ring vacuum chamber and fourteen identical high-voltage modulators located in the service building. The design features a Blumlein pulse-forming-network (PFN) based topology, a low beam impedance termination, a fast current switching thyratron, and low inductance capacitor banks. It has a maximum charging voltage of 50 kV, an open circuit output of 100 kV, and a designed maximum pulsed current output of 4 kA per modulator. The overall system output will reach multiple GW peak power with a 60 pulse/s repetition rate. A prototype modulator has been successfully built and tested well above the SNS requirement. The first batch of production modulators have passed all required tests at manufacture facility and delivered to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, and the rest of the production units are under construction. The technical challenges and development results are presented in this paper.

Production of short microwave pulses with a peak power exceeding the driving electron beam power

This article presents results of theoretical and experimental studies on the production of ultrashort (a few RF cycles duration) microwave pulses of gigawatt peak powers based on superradiance from high-current electron beams. With the Cherenkov backward-wave–electron-beam interaction in a low-dispersion slow-wave structure, microwave pulses with a peak power greater than the peak power of the driving electron beam have been produced for the first time. In an experiment using the SINUS-150 compact high-current electron accelerator, with a 2.6-kA injected beam current and a 330-kV electron energy, microwave pulses of 1.2 GW peak power and ∼0.5 ns duration (FWHM) were generated in the X-band. Production of superradiance pulses in a repetitive regime (3500 Hz) in the Ka-band has been demonstrated using a compact hybrid SOS-modulator. The effect of spatial accumulation of microwave energy in extended slow-wave structures with substantially nonuniform coupling has been demonstrated. In an experiment using the SINUS-200 compact accelerator, X-band pulses of ∼3 GW peak power and 0.6–0.7 ns width (FWHM) were produced with a power conversion efficiency of 150–180% and an energy efficiency of ∼15%.

Demonstration of gain saturation and controlled variation of pulse length at the TESLA test facility FEL

We report on experimental evidence that the free-electron laser at the TESLA Test Facility has reached the maximum power gain of 107 while operating in the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission mode. Following the request of the first scientific users, the TTF FEL has been tuned in the wavelength range between 80 and 120nm (vacuum ultraviolet, VUV), and saturation has been achieved in this entire wavelength range. At saturation the FEL emits short pulses with GW peak power and a high degree of transverse coherence. Also, the paper reports on the demonstration of controlled pulse length variation between 30 and 100fs and on detailed intensity fluctuation studies in this operation mode.

Study of the statistical properties of the radiation from a VUV SASE FEL operating in the femtosecond regime

The Free-Electron Laser (FEL) at the TESLA Test Facility at DESY operates in the self-amplified spontaneous emission mode and generates sub-100-fs radiation pulses in the vacuum ultraviolet spectral region. During operation in the saturation regime, radiation pulses with GW peak power are produced. The statistical properties of the FEL radiation have been studied for different amplification regimes as well as behind a narrow-band monochromator and found to be in good agreement with the results of numerical simulations. Information about the spectral and temporal structure of the FEL radiation has been deduced from the statistical properties. The pulse duration of the FEL radiation can be varied by tailoring the electron bunch that drives the FEL.

A new powerful source for coherent VUV radiation: Demonstration of exponential growth and saturation at the TTF free-electron laser

: We present experimental evidence that the free-electron laser at the TESLA Test Facility has reached the maximum power gain of 107 in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region at wavelengths between 80 and 120 nm. At saturation the FEL emits short pulses with GW peak power and a high degree of transverse coherence. The radiation pulse length can be adjusted between 30 fs and 100 fs. Radiation spectra and fluctuation properties agree with the theory of high gain, single-pass free-electron lasers starting from shot noise.