https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-50558-7
Regular Article
Compression of TW class laser pulses in a planar hollow waveguide for applications in strong-field physics*
1 Department of Physics, Lund
University, P.O. Box
118, 22100
Lund,
Sweden
2 Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée,
ENSTA Paristech, École Polytechnique, CNRS, 91762
Palaiseau,
France
a e-mail: cord.arnold@fysik.lth.se
Received:
28
July
2014
Received in final form:
21
August
2014
Published online:
16
December
2014
We demonstrate pulse post-compression of a TW class chirped pulse amplification laser employing a gas-filled planar hollow waveguide. A waveguide throughput of 80% is achieved for 50 mJ input pulse energy. Good focusability is found and after compression with chirped mirrors a pulse duration of sub-15 fs is measured in the beam center. Whereas a total energy efficiency of ≈70% should be achievable, our post-compressor currently delivers 20 mJ output pulse energy (≈40% efficiency), mostly limited by apertures of chirped mirrors and vacuum windows. The viability of the planar hollow waveguide compression scheme for applications in strong-field physics is demonstrated by generating high-order harmonics in a pulsed Ar gas cell.
© The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
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