HIF 2010
18th International Symposium
on Heavy Ion Inertial Fusion -
Information

Title:	Dr.
Family Name:	Fils
First Name:	Jérôme
E-Mail:	j.filsgsi.de
Affiliation for Badge:	GSI, Darmstadt
Institute:
Address (Street):	Planckstrasse 1
Postal Code, City:	64291
Country:	Germany
Phone:
Fax:
Payment:	Bank transfer to GSI
Author(s):	J. Fils1,3, V. Bagnoud1,3, T. Stöhlker1,3, M. Wolf2,3, J. Hein2,3, M.C. Kaluza2,3, G.G. Paulus2,3
Institute(s):	1- GSI-Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt,Germany 2- Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany 3- Helmholtz Institut Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany
Title:	Ultrafast OPA for Contrast Improvement at the PHELIX Laser Facility
Abstract:	The type of light-matter interaction in ultra-high-intensity physics experiments is intrinsically determined by the temporal contrast of laser pulses. To avoid an un-controlled pre-heating of the targets, it is general acknowledged that a nanosecond contrast of 10^11 is required for on-target intensities above of 10^20 W/cm2. However, the required chirped pulse amplification method (CPA), classically used in high-energy petawatt laser facilities, is intrinsically limited by amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). In such a case, the temporal contrast of the laser pulse is worsened by a pedestal and scarcely overcomes 60 dB. This results in experimental conditions that exceed by many orders of magnitude pedestal-free interaction conditions and leads to severe complications in the interpretation of the data. We propose to implement at the PHELIX (Petawatt High-Energy Laser for heavy-Ion eXperiments) laser facility at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany, a new scheme of preamplifier stage comprising ultrafast OPA (uOPA) recently developed. In our experiment, we will create a pump pulse with a bandwidth necessary to support a sub-picosecond OPA. To limit the possible temporal jitter between the seed and pump pulses in the OPA, a single laser oscillator is split to produce both. The OPA pump laser will be frequency shifted to match the amplification wavelength of a large-bandwidth ytterbium amplifier. In addition, we review with Mirò simulations the advantages of using either BBO or LBO as amplifying crystal medium in a single stage configuration.
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