Abstract

A high-contrast, 30 fs, 1.5 PW Ti:sapphire laser has been developed for research on high field physics. The maximum output energy of 60.2 J was obtained from a booster amplifier pumped by four frenquency-doubled Nd:glass laser systems. Parasitic lasing was suppressed by index matching fluid with absorption dye and the careful manipulation of the time delay between the seed and pump pulses. After compression, the measured pulse duration was 30.2 ± 1.8 fs, and the output energy was 44.5 J, yielding a peak power of about 1.5 PW. A saturable absorber and two ultrafast Pockels cells were installed in the front-end system for the minimization of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and pre-pulse intensity. An adaptive optics system was implemented for obtaining the near diffraction-limited focal spot.

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