Abstract

A new class of ultrashort pulse laser systems has been developed as a pump source for diagnostic x-ray generation and XUV laser experiments. This system is presently capable of producing 135 mJ, 35 fs, 800 nm pulses with near diffraction limited beam quality at a 10 Hz repetition rate. To our knowledge, it is the first such system to produce sub-50 fs pulses with multiterawatt peak powers and the first to control femtosecond timescale phase and amplitude distortions during terawatt level amplification. In order to produce these pulses, the system incorporates several unique innovations which alleviate problems inherent to other short pulse amplification schemes.

© 1994 Optical Society of America