I-BEAT: Ultrasonic method for online measurement of the energy distribution of a single ion bunch.

The shape of a wave carries all information about the spatial and temporal structure of its source, given that the medium and its properties are known. Most modern imaging methods seek to utilize this nature of waves originating from Huygens' principle. We discuss the retrieval of the complete kinetic energy distribution from the acoustic trace that is recorded when a short ion bunch deposits its energy in water. This novel method, which we refer to as Ion-Bunch Energy Acoustic Tracing (I-BEAT), is a refinement of the ionoacoustic approach. With its capability of completely monitoring a single, focused proton bunch with prompt readout and high repetition rate, I-BEAT is a promising approach to meet future requirements of experiments and applications in the field of laser-based ion acceleration. We demonstrate its functionality at two laser-driven ion sources for quantitative online determination of the kinetic energy distribution in the focus of single proton bunches.

Proton acceleration to 40 MeV using a high intensity, high contrast optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification/Ti:sapphire hybrid laser system.

Using a high-contrast (10(10):1) and high-intensity (10(21) W/cm(2)) laser pulse with the duration of 40 fs from an optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification/Ti:sapphire laser, a 40 MeV proton bunch is obtained, which is a record for laser pulse with energy less than 10 J. The efficiency for generation of protons with kinetic energy above 15 MeV is 0.1%.

Temporal contrast enhancement of petawatt-class laser pulses.

We demonstrate the temporal contrast enhancement in a petawatt-class Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) laser system. An extra saturable absorber, introduced downstream after a low-gain optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) preamplifier, has improved the temporal contrast in the system to 1.4×10(12) on the subnanosecond time scale at 70 TW power level. We have achieved 28 J of uncompressed broadband output energy with this system, indicating the potential for reaching peak powers near 600 TW.

High-spatiotemporal-quality petawatt-class laser system.

We have developed a femtosecond high-intensity laser system that combines both Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) and optical parametric CPA (OPCPA) techniques and produces more than 30 J broadband output energy, indicating the potential for achieving peak powers in excess of 500 TW. With a cleaned high-energy seeded OPCPA preamplifier as a front end in the system, for the compressed pulse without pumping the final amplifier, we found that the temporal contrast in this system exceeds 10(10) on the subnanosecond time scales, and is near 10(12) on the nanosecond time scale prior to the peak of the main femtosecond pulse. Using diffractive optical elements for beam homogenization of a 100 J level high-energy Nd:glass green pump laser in a Ti:sapphire final amplifier, we have successfully generated broadband high-energy output with a near-perfect top-hat-like intensity distribution.

ABCD formalism and attosecond few-cycle pulse via chirp manipulation of a seeded free electron laser.

An ABCD formalism is identified to characterize a seeded Free Electron Laser (FEL) with three chirps: an initial frequency chirp in the seed Laser, an energy chirp in the electron bunch, and an intrinsic frequency chirp due to the FEL process. A scheme of generating attosecond few-cycle pulses is proposed by invoking an FEL seeded by high-order harmonic generation (HHG) from an infrared laser. The HHG seed has generic attosecond structure. It is possible to manipulate these three chirps to maintain the attosecond structure via post-undulator chirped pulse compression.

Modeling gain-medium diffraction in super-Gaussian coupled unstable laser cavities.

The diffractive effects of a single laser rod in an unstable super-Gaussian coupled cavity are modeled for a range of cavity configurations, with an intracavity, zero-thickness aperture. After fundamental mode propagation through a maximally flat output coupler, beam quality (M2) and far-field power loss values are related. Beam quality is most sensitive to cavity magnification and aperture Fresnel number, both correlated to the aperture-equivalent Fresnel number. In contrast, variation of M2 with aperture position is sufficiently conservative to predict the intensity profile of a solid-state laser with a typical gain length, in good agreement with experimental data.