Compressing High Energy Lasers through Optical Polymer Films
Jonathan Wheeler,
Gabriel Petrişor Bleotu,
Andrei Naziru,
Riccardo Fabbri,
Masruri Masruri,
Radu Secareanu,
Deano M. Farinella,
Gabriel Cojocaru,
Razvan Ungureanu,
Elsa Baynard,
Julien Demailly,
Moana Pittman,
Razvan Dabu,
Ioan Dancus,
Daniel Ursescu,
David Ros,
Toshiki Tajima,
Gerard Mourou
Affiliations
Jonathan Wheeler
DER-IZEST, Ecole Polytechnique, Route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau, France
Gabriel Petrişor Bleotu
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Andrei Naziru
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Riccardo Fabbri
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Masruri Masruri
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Radu Secareanu
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Deano M. Farinella
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Gabriel Cojocaru
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Razvan Ungureanu
Center for Advanced Laser Technologies (CETAL), National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics (INFLPR), 409 Atomistilor, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Elsa Baynard
Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie—IJCLab, UMR9012—CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay/Université de Paris, 91405 Orsay CEDEX, France
Julien Demailly
Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie—IJCLab, UMR9012—CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay/Université de Paris, 91405 Orsay CEDEX, France
Moana Pittman
Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie—IJCLab, UMR9012—CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay/Université de Paris, 91405 Orsay CEDEX, France
Razvan Dabu
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Ioan Dancus
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
Daniel Ursescu
Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics, National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, 077125 Magurele, Romania
David Ros
Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie—IJCLab, UMR9012—CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay/Université de Paris, 91405 Orsay CEDEX, France
Toshiki Tajima
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Gerard Mourou
DER-IZEST, Ecole Polytechnique, Route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau, France
The thin-film post-compression technique has the ability to reduce the pulse duration in PW-class lasers, increasing the peak power. Here, the nonlinear response of an increasingly available optical thermoplastic demonstrates enhanced spectral broadening, with corresponding shorter pulse duration compared to fused silica glass. The thermoplastic can be used close to its damage threshold when refreshed using a roller mechanism, and the total amount of material can be varied by folding the film. As a proof-of-principle demonstration scalable to 10-PW, a roller mechanism capable of up to 6 passes through a sub-millimeter thermoplastic film is used in vacuum to produce two-fold post-compression of the pulse. The compact design makes it an ideal method to further boost ultrahigh laser pulse intensities with benefits to many areas, including driving high energy acceleration.