Thermal distortion of wavefront in high-intensity-laser system for inverse Compton x-ray generation

We have developed a stable 7 terawatt (TW) (168 mJ per pulse, 24 fs pulse duration) Ti: sapphire laser system operating at 50 Hz for a generation of femtosecond X-ray pulses by inverse Compton scattering. We corrected the wavefront distortion of these high intensity laser pulses with adaptive optics using a Shack-Hartmann type wavefront sensor and a deformable mirror. We have also started developing a compact all-solid-state Yb: Sr5(PO4)3F (Yb: S-FAP) laser system to realize a practical X-ray pulse generation system. We measured thermal lensing induced in Yb: S-FAP crystal for design of a high-energy regenerative amplifier. In addition, we measured wavefront of the amplified pulses in the Yb: S-FAP regenerative amplifier with the wavefront sensor.