Dispersion of femtosecond laser pulses in beam pipelines from ambient pressure to 0.1 mbar

Dispersion of femtosecond pulses in evacuated laser pipelines was measured by spectrally and spatially resolved interferometry. The pressure range varied from 1 bar to 0.1 mbar. The change of spectral phase has been experimentally proven to follow the Edlén-type dispersion formula. Consequences of delivering femtosecond pulses in vacuum beam pipelines and on their precise timing on a target are also discussed.

[1]  Ferenc Krausz,et al.  Investigation of the superfluorescence and signal amplification in an ultrabroadband multiterawatt optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier system , 2006 .

[2]  Colin N. Danson,et al.  Prospects for a multi-PW source using optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers , 1999 .

[3]  Vladimir Chvykov,et al.  Generation of 10 11 contrast 50 TW laser pulses , 2006 .

[4]  K R Wilson,et al.  Generation of 18-fs, multiterawatt pulses by regenerative pulse shaping and chirped-pulse amplification. , 1996, Optics letters.

[5]  J. Viénot,et al.  Holographic analysis of dispersive pupils in space-time optics. , 1981, Applied optics.

[6]  G. Szabó,et al.  Group refractive index measurement by Michelson interferometer , 1990 .

[7]  B. Edĺen.  The Refractive Index of Air , 1966 .

[8]  K. Misawa,et al.  Femtosecond Sagnac interferometer for phase spectroscopy. , 1995, Optics letters.

[9]  Jeffrey A. Squier,et al.  Fourth-order-dispersion limitations of aberration-free chirped-pulse amplification systems , 1997 .

[10]  K Yamakawa,et al.  0.85-PW, 33-fs Ti:sapphire laser. , 2003, Optics letters.

[11]  K. Osvay,et al.  Fine tuning of the higher-order dispersion of a prismatic pulse compressor , 2002 .

[12]  S. Harris,et al.  Generation of a single-cycle optical pulse , 2004, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2004. (CLEO)..

[13]  Zsolt Bor,et al.  On the formation of white-light interference fringes , 1998 .

[14]  J. Hein,et al.  Diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification to the joule level , 2004 .

[15]  B. Lemoff,et al.  Quintic-phase-limited, spatially uniform expansion and recompression of ultrashort optical pulses. , 1993, Optics letters.

[16]  Marco Borghesi,et al.  Measurement of highly transient electrical charging following high-intensity laser-solid interaction , 2003 .

[17]  T. Tschudi,et al.  Refractive-index measurement of gases with a phase-shift keyed interferometer. , 2005, Applied optics.

[18]  K. P. Birch,et al.  LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Correction to the Updated Edln Equation for the Refractive Index of Air , 1994 .

[19]  V. Osipov,et al.  Space discharge and gas lasers , 2006 .

[20]  Gerard Mourou,et al.  Characterization of focal field formed by a large numerical aperture paraboloidal mirror and generation of ultra-high intensity (1022 W/cm2) , 2005 .

[21]  N. N. Rukavishnikov,et al.  200 TW 45 fs laser based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification , 2006 .

[22]  R. Szipöcs,et al.  Group-delay measurement on laser mirrors by spectrally resolved white-light interferometry. , 1995, Optics letters.

[23]  R. C. Weast.  CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics , 1973 .

[24]  I. Ross,et al.  Temporal Contrast of High Intensity Femtosecond UV Pulses , 2000 .

[25]  K. Osvay,et al.  High-precision measurement of angular dispersion in a CPA laser , 2002 .

[26]  Gilbert Tribillon,et al.  Refractometry of liquid samples with spectrally resolved white light interferometry , 1990 .

[27]  Yaron Silberberg,et al.  Real-time spatial–spectral interference measurements of ultrashort optical pulses , 1997 .

[28]  J. Klebniczki,et al.  Dispersion control of a pulse stretcher– compressor system with two-dimensional spectral interferometry , 2005 .

[29]  Jean-Claude Diels,et al.  Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena , 1996 .

[30]  H. Schonnagel,et al.  100-Terawatt titanium-sapphire laser system , 2002 .

[31]  G. Mourou,et al.  Generation and measurement of >108 intensity contrast ratio in a relativistic kHz chirped-pulse amplified laser , 2005 .

[32]  V. Yanovsky,et al.  Novel all-reflective stretcher for chirped-pulse amplification of ultrashort pulses , 2000, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[33]  Ferenc Krausz,et al.  Compression of 2 mJ kilohertz laser pulses to 17.5 fs by pairing double-prism compressor: analysis and performance , 2002 .

[34]  H T Powell,et al.  Petawatt laser pulses. , 1999, Optics letters.

[35]  K. P. Birch,et al.  Optical path length changes induced in cell windows and solid etalons by evacuation , 1988 .

[36]  P. Norreys,et al.  Vulcan petawatt: Design, operation and interactions at 5 × 10 20 Wcm −2 , 2005 .

[37]  M. Pittman,et al.  Design and characterization of a near-diffraction-limited femtosecond 100-TW 10-Hz high-intensity laser system , 2002 .