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On the temporal contrast of high intensity femtosecond laser pulses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2005

K. OSVAY ,
M. CSATÁRI ,
I.N. ROSS ,
A. PERSSON  and
C.-G. WAHLSTRÖM
K. OSVAY
Affiliation:
Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden
M. CSATÁRI
Affiliation:
Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, U.K.
I.N. ROSS
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, U.K.
A. PERSSON
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden
C.-G. WAHLSTRÖM
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden
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Abstract

The temporal contrast is classified into two main regimes, the nanosecond-scale and the picosecond-scale contrast prior to the main pulse. The Lund terawatt laser system is shown to be improved on the nano- and picosecond-scale by a factor of 10 and 50, respectively, when it was optimized for contrast but not for energy. Calculations are also presented to emphasize the role of angular dispersion on the picosecond contrast. Finally we show a compromise between the duration and contrast of femtosecond laser pulses amplified in an optical parametric (chirped pulse) amplifier.

Keywords

High intensity lasersOptical parametric amplificationPulse compressionTemporal contrast
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 327 - 332
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper was presented at the 28th ECLIM conference in Rome, Italy.

References

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