High dynamic range measurement of the pulse contrast in a Ti:sapphire/Nd:glass multiterawatt laser

We describe the design and implementation study of a high dynamic range, third order contrast-ratio measurement diagnostic for a high power laser chain. The device, known as Optical Parametric Amplification Correlator (OPAC) is based on degenerate three-wave mixing in a nonlinear crystal, it is self-referencing and compact. By measuring the idler pulse with a slow detector and a set of calibrated filters, a dynamic range of up to 1010 is achievable. The pulse contrast is to be characterized at the mJ-level, 10 Hz, Ti:sapphire pre-amplifier stage, in a time window of 100 ps.

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