Advanced high intensity laser matter interaction experiments always call for optimized laser performance. In order to
further enhance the POLARIS laser system, operational at the University of Jena and the Helmholtz-Institute Jena, in
particular its energy, bandwidth and focusability, new amplifier technologies have been developed and are reported here.
Additionally, existing sections were considerably improved. A new multi-pass amplification stage, which is able to
replace two currently used ones, was developed in close collaboration with the MPQ (Garching). The new basic elements
of this amplifier are well homogenized pump modules and the application of a successive imaging principle. By
operating the amplifier under vacuum conditions a top hat beam profile with an output energy of up to 1.5 J per pulse is
foreseen. The already implemented POLARIS amplifier A4 was further improved by adapting an advanced method for
the homogenization of the multi-spot composed pump profile. The new method comprises a computer-based
evolutionary algorithm which optimizes the position of the different spots regarding its individual size, shape and
intensity. The latter allowed a better homogenization of the POLARIS near field profile.
We introduce a method to suppress prepulses of pulse picking systems due to the limited extinction ratio of polarization
gating systems. By matching the round trip times of the oscillator and the subsequent regenerative amplifiers, leaking
pulses are hidden below the temporal intensity pedestal of the main pulse. With this method, prepulses at the temporal
position equal to the time difference of the round trip times of the cavities could be suppressed completely.
We report on a comparative study of the damage threshold of ytterbium-doped laser materials which are important
for diode-pumped, high-energy class short pulse lasers. Both surface and bulk damage thresholds at the lasing
wavelength of 1030 nm were investigated. A pulse duration of 6.4 ns was chosen which allows a scaling of the
damage threshold for gain media in q-switched lasers as well as chirped-pulse amplifiers. In order to achieve
comparability and repeatability of the damage measurements the surface preparation of the used samples was kept
constant. Furthermore, the correlation of the bulk damage threshold and the UV absorption spectra was analyzed.
Multi-pass amplification to the 10 joule level for a femto-second CPA laser system is aimed at diode-pumping Yb3+ doped fluoride-phosphate glass with an energy of 240 J at 940 nm. Collimated pump light of 1000 laser diode bars is focussed onto an a circular glass disk with 28mm diameter. A two-sided ring shaped assembly of diode stacks and attached optics is applied for longitudinal pumping. We developed a computer aided optimization routine for positioning single pump foci with size of 4 × 8mm2 to achieve a smooth homogeneously distributed top-hat shaped pump profile with a diameter of 18 mm. For monitoring purpose the pulse energy of each diode stack is measured with a solar panel placed behind a reflecting mirror.
The coherent adding (tiling) of gratings is a promising alternative to large single gratings for highest-power CPA lasers. However, in order to obtain both temporally and spatially undistorted beam profiles it is necessary to align the mosaic gratings accurately to less than λ/20 with respect to one another. This paper is aimed at a thorough description of the alignment procedure, which uses both spatial and temporal properties of the laser beam to detect grating misalignments. The main emphasis lies within the analysis of the k-space, which becomes accessible by focussing the compressed laser-pulse or a monochromatic alignment laser, respectively. We present the effect of grating misalignments on both focal area and near field by propagating continuous-wave, monochromatic laser light through a misaligned tiled grating compressor.
Multi-shot damage tests were performed of gold coated mirrors in the femtosecond and in the nanosecond laser pulse regime. Sputtered gold films from different suppliers of various thicknesses were investigated. Considerable differences in the optical quality and the damage threshold are reported. The best films withstand a maximum fluence of 0.7 J/cm2 for 50-fs Ti:sapphire laser irradiation (804 nm) and 7 J/cm2 for 8-ns Nd:YAG irradiation (1064 nm). For gold films with poor optical quality a permanent surface modification one order of magnitude below the damage threshold was observed.
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