The multi-stage hybrid laser system producing ultrashort pulses of radiation with peak power ~10¹⁴ - 10¹⁵ W being now under developing at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is discussed. The distinctive feature of the laser system is direct amplification of ultrashort pulses produced by a solid state laser system, first going through a prism stretcher with negative dispersion, in gas active medium without using a rather expensive and complicated grating compressor of laser pulses. Two hybrid schemes are being developed now based on the amplification of femtosecond pulses of the third harmonic of Ti:Sapphire laser at the wavelength 248 nm in the active medium of KrF laser amplifier, and on the amplification of the second harmonic of Ti:Sa laser at the wavelength 480 nm in the active medium of photochemical XeF(C-A)-laser excited by VUV radiation of an e-beam pumped Xe₂ lamp. The final stage of the laser system is supposed to be an e-beam pumped facility with a laser chamber of 60 cm in diameter and 200 cm long in the case of KrF laser, and with another laser chamber of 30-40 cm in diameter put into the former one in the case of XeF(C-A) laser. The parameters of such e-beam facility are close to those of previously developed at the Institute of High-Current Electronics: electron energy ~600 keV, specific input power ~ 300-500 kW/cm³, e-beam pulse duration ~ 100-200 ns. A possibility of using Kr₂F as an active medium with saturation energy 0.2 J/cm² for amplification of ultrashort laser pulses is also under consideration. There was theoretically demonstrated that the energy of a laser pulse at the exit of the final stage of the laser system could come up to ~ 17 J with pulse duration ~50 fs in the case of KrF laser, and ~75 J with pulse duration of 25 fs in the case of XeF laser. Two Ti:Sa laser systems producing 50 fs pulses with energy ~0.5 mJ at the wavelength 248 nm and ~5 mJ at the wavelength 480 nm have been already developed and are being now installed at the Lebedev Institute.

Date Published: 26 April 2007
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6346, XVI International Symposium on Gas Flow, Chemical Lasers, and High-Power Lasers, 634610 (26 April 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.738105

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6346:
XVI International Symposium on Gas Flow, Chemical Lasers, and High-Power Lasers
Dieter Schuöcker, Editor(s)