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| Lab table (in the dark)
from UCSD U3 Ultra-powerful Ultra-intense Laser System
(see smaller version)
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| Lab with lights on
from UCSD U3 Ultra-powerful Ultra-intense Laser System
(see smaller version)
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| Diagram
from UCSD U3 Ultra-powerful Ultra-intense Laser System
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| Diagram of Laser chain (from Barty, 1998)
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| Diagram of earlier version of laser
from Laser Focus World, June 1996, p. 93, Ten-femtosecond amplifier creates multiterawatt pulses
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| Overview of laser components
from
Walker, B., Yang, Z.-H., Chowdury, E., Dakin, D., Toth, C., Squier, J.A., Fittinghoff, D., Guo, T., Wilson, K., Barty, C. : 1999,
International Conference on Multiphoton Processes, (ICOMP) 1999.
Ionization of Argon n = 2 (Ar+9 to Ar+16) by a 'Relativistic Field' & New High Average Power Lasers
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Prism Oscillator
- 16 fs duration
- 100 nm bandwidth
- nascent pulse to begin
- 70 m optical path
- 100’s of optics
from
Walker, B., Toth, C., Squier, J., Fittinghoff, D., Guo, T., Wilson, K., Barty, C. : 1999,
Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, May 1999 (CLEO).
Ultrafast, Relativistic Intensities
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| Stretcher diagram |
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| Stretcher diagram (from LFW article) |
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Stretcher
- Off-axis, aberration-full
- Cylindrical mirror based
- 16 fs (5 mm) oscillator pulse
- 800,000 fs (24 cm) shaped pulse, 105 times stretching
- CPA to 10-5 accuracy
- 90 percent MTQE efficiency
- Combination of spherical aberrations and angular dispersion
allows control of up to 5th order phase delays,
pulse transit time through amplifier becomes frequency independent.
- Pulse is vertically multiplexed with a roof mirror after the second grating and is sent
through the entire system twice.
- To eliminate transverse spatial effects, the horizontal image of the beam is inverted with
a four-mirror image inverter arrangement before the second pass.
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| Diagram of regenerative amplifier |
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Regenerative Amplifier
- 5 mJ
- Ti:Sa pumped by 532 nm Nd:YAG laser
- Spectral shaping pellicle 1.6 mm
- 5 ´ 108 net pulse energy gain
- TEM00 mode quality
- Thin-Film Polarizer Etalon (TFPE)
- pulsed < 10 ns FWHM half-wave Pockels cell (beam switcher)
- Spectral filter
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| Regenerative amplifier - thin-Film Polarizer Etalon (TFPE) in lower center |
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| Regenerative amplifier - Diagram of how TFPE eliminates gain narrowing and controls gain reshaping during amplification |
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Pre-amplifier
- 4 pass Ti:Sa
- 250 mJ, 20 Hz
- > 40 % efficient
- high mode quality
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Final amplifier
- 2 pass
- 5.4 J total (about 2.5 J ´ 2), 10 Hz
- green (Continuum)
- 54 % conversion efficiency
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Compressor
- Hybrid vacuum-atmosphere design : Adjustments in air
- ultraclean, small vacuum
- negligible group delay error
- 1998, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 4, 441
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| Chris Barty adjusting pulse-compressor separation. Continuum radiation is generated at the focal point (in air).
from Laser Focus World, June 1996, p. 93, Ten-femtosecond amplifier creates multiterawatt pulses
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| Final beam profile at 10 Hz |
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| U3 laser image
from Laser Focus World, June 1996, p. 93, Ten-femtosecond amplifier creates multiterawatt pulses
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