Nd:glass amplifiers are used in most of the existed petawatt laser facilities. A typical repetition rate of such lasers is 1 shot per 30 minutes or less. Limitations are thermally induced distortions of radiation and tensile stresses in Nd:glass. An increase of the repetition rate is an urgent problem. We have investigated thermally induced depolarization and thermal lens effects in Nd:glass rods up to 10 cm in diameter at a pump pulse repetition period of 3 minutes. It is shown that the rods have a safety factor of at least 5 before thermal stress induced damage would occur, and despite of their size phase and polarization distortions could be compensated.

© 2011 OSA

1. M. D. Perry, D. Pennington, B. C. Stuart, G. Tietbohl, J. A. Britten, C. Brown, S. Herman, B. Golick, M. Kartz, J. Miller, H. T. Powell, M. Vergino, and V. Yanovsky, “Petawatt laser pulses,” Opt. Lett. 24(3), 160–162 (1999). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
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5. E. W. Gaul, M. Martinez, J. Blakeney, A. Jochmann, M. Ringuette, D. Hammond, T. Borger, R. Escamilla, S. Douglas, W. Henderson, G. Dyer, A. Erlandson, R. Cross, J. Caird, C. Ebbers, and T. Ditmire, “Demonstration of a 1.1 petawatt laser based on a hybrid optical parametric chirped pulse amplification/mixed Nd:glass amplifier,” Appl. Opt. 49(9), 1676–1681 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
6. M. Aoyama, K. Yamakawa, Y. Akahane, J. Ma, N. Inoue, H. Ueda, and H. Kiriyama, “0.85-PW, 33-fs Ti:sapphire laser,” Opt. Lett. 28(17), 1594–1596 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
7. J. L. Collier, O. Chekhlov, R. J. Clsarke, E. J. Divall, K. Ertel, B. D. Fell, P. S. Foster, S. J. Hancock, C. J. Hooker, A. Langley, B. Martin, D. Neely, J. Smith, and B. E. Wyborn, “The astra gemini project a high repetition rate dual beam petawatt laser facility,” in Proceedings of Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) (Baltimore, MD, 2005), p. JFB1.
8. X. Liang, Y. Leng, C. Wang, C. Li, L. Lin, B. Zhao, Y. Jiang, X. Lu, M. Hu, C. Zhang, H. Lu, D. Yin, Y. Jiang, X. Lu, H. Wei, J. Zhu, R. Li, and Z. Xu, “Parasitic lasing suppression in high gain femtosecond petawatt Ti:sapphire amplifier,” Opt. Express 15(23), 15335–15341 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
9. V. Yanovsky, V. Chvykov, G. Kalinchenko, P. Rousseau, T. Planchon, T. Matsuoka, A. Maksimchuk, J. Nees, G. Cheriaux, G. Mourou, and K. Krushelnick, “Ultra-high intensity- 300-TW laser at 0.1 Hz repetition rate,” Opt. Express 16(3), 2109–2114 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
10. V. V. Lozhkarev, G. I. Freidman, V. N. Ginzburg, E. V. Katin, E. A. Khazanov, A. V. Kirsanov, G. A. Luchinin, A. N. Mal'shakov, M. A. Martyanov, O. V. Palashov, A. K. Poteomkin, A. M. Sergeev, A. A. Shaykin, and I. V. Yakovlev, “Compact 0.56 petawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification in KD*P crystals,” Laser Phys. Lett. 4(6), 421–427 (2007). [CrossRef]
11. I. N. Ross, P. Matousek, G. H. C. New, and K. Osvay, “Analysis and optimization of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 19(12), 2945–2956 (2002). [CrossRef]
12. X. Yang, Z. Z. Xu, Y. X. Leng, H. H. Lu, L. H. Lin, Z. Q. Zhang, R. X. Li, W. Q. Zhang, D. J. Yin, and B. Tang, “Multiterawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification,” Opt. Lett. 27(13), 1135–1137 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
13. V. V. Lozhkarev, S. G. Garanin, R. R. Gerke, V. N. Ginzburg, E. V. Katin, A. V. Kirsanov, G. A. Luchinin, A. N. Mal'shakov, M. A. Martyanov, O. V. Palashov, A. K. Poteomkin, N. N. Rukavishnikov, A. M. Sergeev, S. A. Sukharev, E. A. Khazanov, G. I. Freidman, A. V. Charukhchev, A. A. Shaykin, and I. V. Yakovlev, “100-TW femtosecond laser based on parametric amplification,” JETP Lett. 82(4), 178–180 (2005). [CrossRef]
14. V. V. Lozhkarev, G. I. Freidman, V. N. Ginzburg, E. V. Katin, E. A. Khazanov, A. V. Kirsanov, G. A. Luchinin, A. N. Mal’shakov, M. A. Martyanov, O. V. Palashov, A. K. Poteomkin, A. M. Sergeev, A. A. Shaykin, I. V. Yakovlev, S. G. Garanin, S. A. Sukharev, N. N. Rukavishnikov, A. V. Charukhchev, R. R. Gerke, and V. E. Yashin, “200 TW 45 fs laser based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification,” Opt. Express 14(1), 446–454 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
15. O. V. Chekhlov, J. L. Collier, I. N. Ross, P. K. Bates, M. Notley, C. Hernandez-Gomez, W. Shaikh, C. N. Danson, D. Neely, P. Matousek, S. Hancock, and L. Cardoso, “35 J broadband femtosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplification system,” Opt. Lett. 31(24), 3665–3667 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
16. W. Koechner, Solid State Laser Engineering (Springer, 2006)
17. A. V. Mezenov, L. N. Soms, and A. I. Stepanov, Termooptika Tverdotelnykh Laserov [Thermooptics of Solid-state Lasers] (Mashinostroenie, Leningrad, 1986)
18. Yu. A. Ananiev and N. I. Grishmanova, “Deformation of active elements and thermo-optical constants of Nd-glass,” J. Appl. Spectrosc. 12(4), 668–691 (1970).
19. W. Koechner and D. K. Rice, “Effect of birefringence on the performance of linearly polarized YAG:Nd lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 6(9), 557–566 (1970). [CrossRef]
20. M. K. Chun and J. T. Bischoff, “Thermal transient effects in optically pumped repetitively pulsed lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 7(5), 200–202 (1971). [CrossRef]
21. A. A. Mak, V. M. Mit’kin, and L. N. Soms, “On thermo-optical properties of activated glasses,” Optomechan. Ind. 9, 65–66 (1971).
22. I. B. Vitrishchak, L. N. Soms, and A. A. Tarasov, “On eigenpolarization of a resonator with thermally deformed active element,” J. Tech. Phys. XLIV(5), 1055–1062 (1974).
23. J. S. Uppal, P. D. Gupta, and D. D. Bhawalkar, “Study of thermally induced active birefringence in Nd:glass laser rods,” J. Appl. Phys. 54(11), 6615–6619 (1983). [CrossRef]
24. N. Gopi, T. P. S. Nathan, and B. K. Sinha, “Experimental studies of transient, thermal depolarization in a Nd:glass laser rod,” Appl. Opt. 29(15), 2259–2265 (1990). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
25. A. A. Kuz’min, G. A. Luchinin, A. K. Poteomkin, A. A. Soloviev, E. A. Khazanov, and A. A. Shaykin, “Thermally induced distortions in neodymium glass rod amplifiers,” Quantum Electron. 39(10), 895–900 (2009). [CrossRef]
26. J. Bunkenberg, J. Boles, D. C. Brown, J. Eastman, J. Hoose, R. Hopkins, L. Iwan, S. D. Jacobs, J. H. Kelly, S. Kumpan, S. Letzring, D. Lonobile, L. D. Lund, G. Mourou, S. Refermat, W. Seka, J. M. Soures, and K. Walsh, “The omega high-power phosphate-glass system: design and performance,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 17(9), 1620–1628 (1981). [CrossRef]
27. A. K. Poteomkin, K. A. Jurin, A. V. Kirsanov, E. A. Kopelovich, M. V. Kuznetsov, A. A. Kuzmin, F. A. Flat, E. A. Khazanov, and A. A. Shaykin, “Efficient large-aperture Nd:glass rod amplifiers,” Quantum Electron. 41, 487–491 (2011).
28. L. I. Avakyants, I. M. Buzhinsky, E. I. Koryagina, and V. F. Surkova, “Characteristics of laser glasses (reference survey),” Quantum Electron. 8(4), 423–434 (1978). [CrossRef]

Appl. Opt.

• E. W. Gaul, M. Martinez, J. Blakeney, A. Jochmann, M. Ringuette, D. Hammond, T. Borger, R. Escamilla, S. Douglas, W. Henderson, G. Dyer, A. Erlandson, R. Cross, J. Caird, C. Ebbers, and T. Ditmire, “Demonstration of a 1.1 petawatt laser based on a hybrid optical parametric chirped pulse amplification/mixed Nd:glass amplifier,” Appl. Opt. 49(9), 1676–1681 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• N. Gopi, T. P. S. Nathan, and B. K. Sinha, “Experimental studies of transient, thermal depolarization in a Nd:glass laser rod,” Appl. Opt. 29(15), 2259–2265 (1990). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

IEEE J. Quantum Electron.

• J. Bunkenberg, J. Boles, D. C. Brown, J. Eastman, J. Hoose, R. Hopkins, L. Iwan, S. D. Jacobs, J. H. Kelly, S. Kumpan, S. Letzring, D. Lonobile, L. D. Lund, G. Mourou, S. Refermat, W. Seka, J. M. Soures, and K. Walsh, “The omega high-power phosphate-glass system: design and performance,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 17(9), 1620–1628 (1981). [CrossRef]
• W. Koechner and D. K. Rice, “Effect of birefringence on the performance of linearly polarized YAG:Nd lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 6(9), 557–566 (1970). [CrossRef]
• M. K. Chun and J. T. Bischoff, “Thermal transient effects in optically pumped repetitively pulsed lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 7(5), 200–202 (1971). [CrossRef]
• Y. Kitagawa, H. Fujita, R. Kodama, H. Yoshida, S. Matsuo, T. Jitsuno, T. Kawasaki, H. Kitamura, T. Kanabe, S. Sakabe, K. Shigemori, N. Miyanaga, and Y. Izawa, “Prepulse-free petawatt laser for a fast ignitor,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 40(3), 281–293 (2004). [CrossRef]

J. Appl. Phys.

• J. S. Uppal, P. D. Gupta, and D. D. Bhawalkar, “Study of thermally induced active birefringence in Nd:glass laser rods,” J. Appl. Phys. 54(11), 6615–6619 (1983). [CrossRef]

J. Appl. Spectrosc.

• Yu. A. Ananiev and N. I. Grishmanova, “Deformation of active elements and thermo-optical constants of Nd-glass,” J. Appl. Spectrosc. 12(4), 668–691 (1970).

J. Opt. Soc. Am. B

• I. N. Ross, P. Matousek, G. H. C. New, and K. Osvay, “Analysis and optimization of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 19(12), 2945–2956 (2002). [CrossRef]

J. Tech. Phys.

• I. B. Vitrishchak, L. N. Soms, and A. A. Tarasov, “On eigenpolarization of a resonator with thermally deformed active element,” J. Tech. Phys. XLIV(5), 1055–1062 (1974).

JETP Lett.

• V. V. Lozhkarev, S. G. Garanin, R. R. Gerke, V. N. Ginzburg, E. V. Katin, A. V. Kirsanov, G. A. Luchinin, A. N. Mal'shakov, M. A. Martyanov, O. V. Palashov, A. K. Poteomkin, N. N. Rukavishnikov, A. M. Sergeev, S. A. Sukharev, E. A. Khazanov, G. I. Freidman, A. V. Charukhchev, A. A. Shaykin, and I. V. Yakovlev, “100-TW femtosecond laser based on parametric amplification,” JETP Lett. 82(4), 178–180 (2005). [CrossRef]

Laser Phys. Lett.

• V. V. Lozhkarev, G. I. Freidman, V. N. Ginzburg, E. V. Katin, E. A. Khazanov, A. V. Kirsanov, G. A. Luchinin, A. N. Mal'shakov, M. A. Martyanov, O. V. Palashov, A. K. Poteomkin, A. M. Sergeev, A. A. Shaykin, and I. V. Yakovlev, “Compact 0.56 petawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification in KD*P crystals,” Laser Phys. Lett. 4(6), 421–427 (2007). [CrossRef]

Nucl. Fusion

• C. N. Danson, P. A. Brummitt, R. J. Clarke, J. L. Collier, B. Fell, A. J. Frackiewicz, S. Hancock, S. Hawkes, C. Hernandez-Gomez, P. Holligan, M. H. R. Hutchinson, A. Kidd, W. J. Lester, I. O. Musgrave, D. Neely, D. R. Neville, P. A. Norreys, D. A. Pepler, C. J. Reason, W. Shaikh, T. B. Winstone, R. W. W. Wyatt, and B. E. Wyborn, “Vulcan Petawatt - an ultra-high-intensity interaction facility,” Nucl. Fusion 44(12), S239–S246 (2004). [CrossRef]

Opt. Express

• X. Liang, Y. Leng, C. Wang, C. Li, L. Lin, B. Zhao, Y. Jiang, X. Lu, M. Hu, C. Zhang, H. Lu, D. Yin, Y. Jiang, X. Lu, H. Wei, J. Zhu, R. Li, and Z. Xu, “Parasitic lasing suppression in high gain femtosecond petawatt Ti:sapphire amplifier,” Opt. Express 15(23), 15335–15341 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• V. Yanovsky, V. Chvykov, G. Kalinchenko, P. Rousseau, T. Planchon, T. Matsuoka, A. Maksimchuk, J. Nees, G. Cheriaux, G. Mourou, and K. Krushelnick, “Ultra-high intensity- 300-TW laser at 0.1 Hz repetition rate,” Opt. Express 16(3), 2109–2114 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• V. V. Lozhkarev, G. I. Freidman, V. N. Ginzburg, E. V. Katin, E. A. Khazanov, A. V. Kirsanov, G. A. Luchinin, A. N. Mal’shakov, M. A. Martyanov, O. V. Palashov, A. K. Poteomkin, A. M. Sergeev, A. A. Shaykin, I. V. Yakovlev, S. G. Garanin, S. A. Sukharev, N. N. Rukavishnikov, A. V. Charukhchev, R. R. Gerke, and V. E. Yashin, “200 TW 45 fs laser based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification,” Opt. Express 14(1), 446–454 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Lett.

• O. V. Chekhlov, J. L. Collier, I. N. Ross, P. K. Bates, M. Notley, C. Hernandez-Gomez, W. Shaikh, C. N. Danson, D. Neely, P. Matousek, S. Hancock, and L. Cardoso, “35 J broadband femtosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplification system,” Opt. Lett. 31(24), 3665–3667 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• X. Yang, Z. Z. Xu, Y. X. Leng, H. H. Lu, L. H. Lin, Z. Q. Zhang, R. X. Li, W. Q. Zhang, D. J. Yin, and B. Tang, “Multiterawatt laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification,” Opt. Lett. 27(13), 1135–1137 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• M. Aoyama, K. Yamakawa, Y. Akahane, J. Ma, N. Inoue, H. Ueda, and H. Kiriyama, “0.85-PW, 33-fs Ti:sapphire laser,” Opt. Lett. 28(17), 1594–1596 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• M. D. Perry, D. Pennington, B. C. Stuart, G. Tietbohl, J. A. Britten, C. Brown, S. Herman, B. Golick, M. Kartz, J. Miller, H. T. Powell, M. Vergino, and V. Yanovsky, “Petawatt laser pulses,” Opt. Lett. 24(3), 160–162 (1999). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Photon. News

• L. J. Waxer, D. N. Maywar, J. H. Kelly, T. J. Kessler, B. E. Kruschwitz, S. J. Loucks, R. L. McCrory, D. D. Meyerhofer, F. B. S. Morse, C. Stoeckl, and J. D. Zuegel, “High-energy petawatt capability for the Omega laser,” Opt. Photon. News 16(7), 30–36 (2005). [CrossRef]

Optomechan. Ind.

• A. A. Mak, V. M. Mit’kin, and L. N. Soms, “On thermo-optical properties of activated glasses,” Optomechan. Ind. 9, 65–66 (1971).

Quantum Electron.

• A. K. Poteomkin, K. A. Jurin, A. V. Kirsanov, E. A. Kopelovich, M. V. Kuznetsov, A. A. Kuzmin, F. A. Flat, E. A. Khazanov, and A. A. Shaykin, “Efficient large-aperture Nd:glass rod amplifiers,” Quantum Electron. 41, 487–491 (2011).
• L. I. Avakyants, I. M. Buzhinsky, E. I. Koryagina, and V. F. Surkova, “Characteristics of laser glasses (reference survey),” Quantum Electron. 8(4), 423–434 (1978). [CrossRef]
• A. A. Kuz’min, G. A. Luchinin, A. K. Poteomkin, A. A. Soloviev, E. A. Khazanov, and A. A. Shaykin, “Thermally induced distortions in neodymium glass rod amplifiers,” Quantum Electron. 39(10), 895–900 (2009). [CrossRef]

Other

• J. L. Collier, O. Chekhlov, R. J. Clsarke, E. J. Divall, K. Ertel, B. D. Fell, P. S. Foster, S. J. Hancock, C. J. Hooker, A. Langley, B. Martin, D. Neely, J. Smith, and B. E. Wyborn, “The astra gemini project a high repetition rate dual beam petawatt laser facility,” in Proceedings of Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) (Baltimore, MD, 2005), p. JFB1.
• W. Koechner, Solid State Laser Engineering (Springer, 2006)
• A. V. Mezenov, L. N. Soms, and A. I. Stepanov, Termooptika Tverdotelnykh Laserov [Thermooptics of Solid-state Lasers] (Mashinostroenie, Leningrad, 1986)

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