Compression of TW class laser pulses in a planar hollow waveguide for applications in strong-field physics

Amélie Jarnac (1) , Fernando Brizuela (2) , Christoph M. Heyl (2) , Piotr Rudawski (2) , Filippo Campi (2) , Byunghoon Kim (2) , Linnea Rading (2) , Per Johnsson (2) , André Mysyrowicz (1) , Anne L'Huillier (2) , Aurélien Houard (1) , Cord L. Arnold (2)

1 ILM - Interaction Laser-Matière
2 Department of Physics

We demonstrate pulse post-compression of a TW class chirped pulse amplification laser em-ploying a gas-filled planar hollow waveguide. A waveguide throughput of 80% is achieved for 50 mJ input pulse energy. Good focusability is found and after compression with chirped mirrors a pulse duration of sub-15 fs is measured in the beam center. Whereas a total energy efficiency of ≈70% should be achievable, our post-compressor currently delivers 20 mJ output pulse energy (≈40% efficiency), mostly limited by apertures of chirped mirrors and vacuum windows. The viability of the planar hollow waveguide compres-sion scheme for applications in strong-field physics is demonstrated by generating high-order harmonics in a pulsed Ar gas cell.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Amélie Jarnac, Fernando Brizuela, Christoph M. Heyl, Piotr Rudawski, Filippo Campi, et al.. Compression of TW class laser pulses in a planar hollow waveguide for applications in strong-field physics. The European Physical Journal D : Atomic, molecular, optical and plasma physics, 2014, Topical issue: X-ray Generation from Ultrafast Lasers. Guest editors: Germán J. de Valcárcel, Luis Roso and Amelle Zaïr, 68, pp.373. ⟨10.1140/epjd/e2014-50558-7⟩. ⟨hal-01118357⟩