Optically pumped CO₂ lasers can operate with high efficiency, high repetition rate and large bandwidths, suitable for producing ultra-short pulses at terawatts to petawatts, in contrast to conventional discharge-pumped CO₂ lasers, which are restricted by the requirements of discharge dynamics in high-pressure gas. We show how an optically pumped CO₂ laser can be realised and we consider its application in laser-driven acceleration. There is potential to replace conventional transversely excited atmospheric CO₂ lasers with diode-pumped solid-state lasers as a pump laser for a high-pressure CO₂ gain medium, making it suitable for amplifying ultra-short pulses. We show that by driving a laser plasma wakefield accelerator with an ultra-short pulse CO₂ laser, a very high charge, high average current, high energy accelerator can be constructed. This could have a major impact on the application of these novel accelerators and radiation sources based on them.

Date Published: 3 January 2019
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 11042, XXII International Symposium on High Power Laser Systems and Applications, 110420W (3 January 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2522546

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11042:
XXII International Symposium on High Power Laser Systems and Applications
Paolo Di Lazzaro, Editor(s)