Laser 4 Aton: 10 PW, 2 kJ

Laser 4 Aton: 10 PW, 2 kJ

Řetězec L4 Aton je určen ke generování extrémně vysokého a dosud nevídaného špičkového výkonu 10 PW (petawattů) při délce trvání pulzu asi 130 fs. Nekomprimovaná energie může dosáhnout hodnoty téměř 2 kJ s frekvencí výstřelů za min, což představuje významný pokrok v oblasti laserů v kJ třídě. Architektura je založena na přímé kompresi širokopásmového svazku zesíleného kombinací různých desek neodymového skla. Laser je vyvíjen konsorciem National Energetics (USA) a EKSPLA (Litva). [Podrobné informace jsou prozatím k dispozici v anglickém jazyce.]

The L4 Aton system architecture

The L4 laser system can operate in two main modes:

  • All the energy can be used to generate a power of 10 PW in a single beam. By-pass of the compressor is possible in order to use the chirped nanosecond (ns) beam directly.
  • The main amplifier can deliver almost 2 kJ in a narrowband ns beam with variable temporal shaping seeded by a separate front end. At the same time, the broadband front end can seed the first main amplifier and thus provide a 200 J-class PW pulse.

The L4 laser chain is composed of a broadband ultrafast oscillator, picosecond OPCPA preamplifier, nanosecond OPCPA stages, and two main amplifier stages based on Nd:glass-gain media pumped by flashlamps. The resulting nanosecond pulses are compressed in a dielectric grating compressor.

L4 beam line design parameters (main beam)

Output pulse energy (main beam compressed) >1,800 J in single aperture
Pulse duration (CPA regime) <150 fs FWHM (adjustable to 100 ps)
Pulse duration (non-CPA regime) 0.5–5 ns (temporal shaping adjustable in 150 ps steps)
Repetition rate 1 shot per minute
Peak power 10 PW
Pump laser technology flashlamp-pumped Nd:glass amplifiers
Output laser pulse energy RMS stability  better than 10% rms
Output laser beam RMS pointing stability <10 µrad
Laser control system Labview and EPICS
Output pulse external synchronization relative to the facility clock <20 ps to RF clock with any delay relative to facility clock
Beam format  rectangular superGaussian
Beam size of compressed beam <550×550 mm

Delivery of the system

The delivery of the L4 Aton laser system was contracted with the United States-Lithuanian consortium of National Energetics and Ekspla in September 2014.

The main subcontractors are Schott and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

ELI-Beamlines staff is in charge of delivering for the following subsystems:

  • Full diagnostics of the compressed 10 PW beam
  • Design of the vacuum vessel for the 10 PW compressor
  • Design and delivery of optomechanics for the 10 PW compressor
  • Laser timing platform
  • Contribution to the development of long pulse OPCPA amplifiers.

References: Daniel Kramer, daniel.kramer@eli-beams.eu

Související stránky

Výzkum / Lasery / Petawatt Lasers

ELI-Beamlines' laser team is developing and co-developing, in partnership with major laser technology suppliers of the project, a number of essential systems for Petawatt (PW) and 10-PW lasers.

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