Researchers from the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) and Thales recently demonstrated that the two-arm hybrid high-power laser system (HPLS) is able to deliver 2 × 10 PW femtosecond pulses.
The HPLS is composed of multiple pulse amplifiers and compressors, and at the end of this system is a beam-steering periscope with a leaky mirror that transmits a fraction of the beam to diagnostics equipment.
The energy meter, a QE95 detector, allowed the authors to obtain data about the HPLS's final output stage. They were able to characterize the laser's extraction efficiency and show that the system could reach up to 327 J per pulse, with a duration of merely 23 fs. They also used the energy meter to demonstrate the reliability of the system, by measuring its repetition rate and pulse-to-pulse stability.
This achievement is a new milestone in the development of high-power laser systems, and Gentec-EO is proud to have played a small part in it.
The paper describing the results is: "High-energy hybrid femtosecond laser system demonstrating 2 × 10 PW capability" by Lureau et al. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
It is available online here.
Image above shows the Gentec-EO QE95LP-S-MB-D0 Pyroelectric detector for laser energy measurement up to 35 J.
