Abstract

There is now a tremendous interest in going to "extreme" physics using ultrashort and ultraintense laser pulses.¹ For instance, ultrashort pulses with intensities in the 10²⁰ W/cm² range are expected to induce effects in plasma, such as holeboring² in supercritical plasma or ion heating, which might be relevant to ignite capsule in inertial confinement fusion.³ Such a scheme would involve the use of hundreds of joules, if not kJ, in the femtosecond or picosecond regime. However, this level of energy cannot be reached by using any known crystalline (Ti:sapphire, Cr³⁺-LISAF, etc.) or gazeous (KrF, etc.) broad-band amplifying media.

© 1994 IEEE