Multi-terawatt picoseconds 10-μm СО<sub>2</sub> laser system: design and parameters' control

doi:10.1364/OE.20.025536

Multi-terawatt picoseconds 10-μm СО₂ laser system: design and parameters' control

B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, V. M. Gordienko, E. F. Makarov, V. Ya. Panchenko, V. T. Platonenko, and G. K. Vasil'ev »View Author Affiliations

Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 23, pp. 25536-25544 (2012)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.025536

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▸ Article Outline
– Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Formulation of the problem and calculation procedure
3. Amplification
4. Noise generated in amplifiers
Conclusions
– References and links

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Abstract

The basic principles for design of an advanced multi-terawatt СО₂ laser system are considered. The key amplifiers' parameters were evaluated by numerical modeling. The potential advantage of using pulsed chemical DF–CO₂ laser as a final amplifier over an electro-ionization TE-CO₂ laser is outlined. The dynamics of noise development along the chain of amplifiers and a resultant contrast ratio are analyzed. The evaluated parameters allowed to suggest a system with a mid-pressure final DF–CO₂ laser which can generate a single 15-TW 2.5-ps pulse.

1. Introduction

Over the past years, there has been renewed interest in developing powerful 10-μm СО₂ laser systems generating ultrashort pulses with a relativistic intensity [1

B. G. Bravy, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, S. G. Rykovanov, and G. K. Vasiliev, “Sub-picosecond petawatt class N₂O laser system: mid-IR non-linear optics and new possibilities for high energy physics,” Proc. SPIE 6735, 67350L, 67350L-10 (2007). [CrossRef]

–3

D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, and C. Joshi, “Fifteen terawatt picosecond CO₂ laser system,” Opt. Express 18(17), 17865–17875 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. To some extent, this was stimulated by recent studies on interaction between 10-μm laser radiation and gas-cluster targets aiming at generation of MeV quasi-monoenergetic protons [4

V. M. Gordienko and V. T. Platonenko, “Powerful picosecond 10 μm laser radiation in gaseous and cluster media: pulse duration control, particle acceleration and nuclear excitation,” Abstr. Int. Conf. on Superstrong Fields in Plasmas, October 3–9, 2010, Varenna (Italy), Thu/I-2.

–6

D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, F. Fiuza, C. Gong, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi, “Collisionless shocks in laser-produced plasma generate monoenergetic high-energy proton beams,” Nat. Phys. 8(1), 95–99 (2011). [CrossRef]

]. The feasibility of ionization-assisted wave-guided pulse compression to generate single pulses of multi-terawatt peak power in the mid-IR was discussed in [7

A. A. Voronin, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. Ya. Panchenko, and A. M. Zheltikov, “Ionization-assisted guided-wave pulse compression to extreme peak powers and single-cycle pulse widths in the mid-infrared,” Opt. Lett. 35(21), 3640–3642 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. Such pulses may be promising for generating coherent X-rays via phase-matched generation of harmonics in inert gases [8

T. Popmintchev, M. Chen, P. Arpin, M. Murnane, and H. Kapteyn, “The attosecond nonlinear optics of bright coherent X-ray generation,” Nat. Photonics 4(12), 822–832 (2010). [CrossRef]

]. The first experiments to check the feasibility of such an approach using a high-power femtosecond parametric amplifier operating in the 4-μm range were reported in [9

T. Popmintchev, M.-C. Chen, D. Popmintchev, P. Arpin, S. Brown, S. Alisauskas, G. Andriukaitis, T. Balciunas, O. D. Mücke, A. Pugzlys, A. Baltuska, B. Shim, S. E. Schrauth, A. L. Gaeta, C. Hernández-García, L. Plaja, A. Becker, A. Jaron-Becker, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, “Bright coherent ultrahigh harmonics in the keV x-ray regime from mid-infrared femtosecond lasers,” Science 336(6086), 1287–1291 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Existing laser systems for generation of high-energy picosecond 10-μm pulses involve: (1) a master oscillator producing ultrashort seed pulses, (2) a regenerative amplifier, and (3) final СО₂ amplifiers. The latter ones can be either of high-pressure (8–10 atm) with a quasi-continuous gain spectrum [2

I. Pogorelsky, P. Shkolnikov, M. Chen, A. Pukhov, V. Yakimenko, P. McKenna, D. Carroll, D. Neely, Z. Najmudin, L. Willingale, D. Stolyarov, E. Stolyarova, G. Flynn, C. B. Schroeder, W. Leemans, and E. Esarey, “Proton and ion beams generated with picosecond CO₂ laser pulses,” AIP Conf. Proc. 1086, 532–537 (2009). [CrossRef]

, 10

P. V. Corkum and C. Rolland, “High energy picosecond 10-μm pulses,” Proc. SPIE 664, 212–216 (1986). [CrossRef]

, 11

Z. A. Biglov, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. A. Slobodyanyuk, V. D. Taranukhin, and S. Y. Ten, “Generation and amplification of 10-μm phase-modulated picoseconds pulses,” Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR., Phys. Ser. 55(2), 135–143 (1991).

] or of mid-pressure (2–3 atm) with a discrete gain spectrum [3

D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, and C. Joshi, “Fifteen terawatt picosecond CO₂ laser system,” Opt. Express 18(17), 17865–17875 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. A mid-pressure amplifier is advantageous in the relative simplicity of its excitation and high aperture but the drawbacks include the formation of peak trains and amplification of noise resulting in limitation of integral amplification factor at a relatively low level. Note that in order to achieve terawatt or multi-terawatt levels, which can be used to reach relativistic or ultra-relativistic intensities (for 10-μm radiation, the relativistic intensity is about 3·10¹⁶ W/cm²), the overall amplification factor of the laser system should be of 10⁸ or greater.

For the first time, coherent amplification of 10-μm picosecond pulses in media with a discrete spectrum (СО₂-based amplifier) was numerically analyzed in [12

V. T. Platonenko and V. D. Taranukhin, “Coherent amplification of light pulses in media with a discrete spectrum,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 13(11), 1459–1466 (1983). [CrossRef]

] and observed experimentally in [13

D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, Ch. Gong, Ch. Joshi, S. H. Gold, and G. S. Nusinovich, “Production of multi-terawatt time-structured CO₂ laser pulses for ion acceleration,” 14^th Adv. Accelerator Concepts Workshop, AIP Conf. Proc. 1299, 737–742 (2010). [CrossRef]

]. Detailed analysis of the dynamics for formation/decay of pulse trains has shown that predominant amplification of a single picosecond pulse can be achieved in a regime of saturated amplification.

For high-pressure regenerative СО₂ amplifiers, a low aperture, about 3–10 mm, is typical [10

P. V. Corkum and C. Rolland, “High energy picosecond 10-μm pulses,” Proc. SPIE 664, 212–216 (1986). [CrossRef]

, 14

V. M. Gordienko and V. T. Platonenko, “Regenerative amplification of ps pulses from a high-pressure 10-μm CO₂ laser with optical pumping,” Quantum Electron. 40(12), 1118–1122 (2010). [CrossRef]

], while for final ones, a value of 100 mm and larger. Serious technical problems noted while designing wide-aperture active media have led to the use of electro-ionization (EI) СО₂ amplifiers [15

Yu. I. Bychkov, B. M. Koval'chuk, G. P. Kuz'min, G. A. Mesyats, and V. F. Tarasenko, “Wide -aperture CO₂ lasers pumped with an electron-beam-controlled discharge,” Russ. Phys. J. 43(5), 345–351 (2000). [CrossRef]

]. In the recently designed 15-TW picosecond CO₂ laser system [3

D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, and C. Joshi, “Fifteen terawatt picosecond CO₂ laser system,” Opt. Express 18(17), 17865–17875 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

], the pressure of active medium in the EI amplifier was about 2.5 atm. In a regime of unsaturated amplification, the resultant train must inevitably comprise of several picosecond peaks [12

V. T. Platonenko and V. D. Taranukhin, “Coherent amplification of light pulses in media with a discrete spectrum,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 13(11), 1459–1466 (1983). [CrossRef]

]. According to [13

], the output energy was concentrated in two central peaks of the train. Meanwhile, the use of the pulse train can complicate analysis of the experimental results in light of the interaction of powerful laser radiation with matter when it is essential to study the medium reaction on the powerful single-pulse impact.

An alternative to EI wide-aperture СО₂ amplifiers can be the use of a wide-aperture pulsed chemical DF–CO₂ laser [16

B. G. Bravy, G. K. Vasiliev, E. F. Makarov, and Yu. A. Chernyshev, “Superpowerful lasers on chain chemical reactions for studying dense relativistic plasma and laser fusion,” Proc. SPIE 4747, 1–8 (2002). [CrossRef]

] (based on chain reaction of fluorine with deuterium with energy transfer to СО₂ [17

T. A. Cool, “Transfer chemical lasers,” in Handbook of Chemical Lasers, R. W. F. Gross and J. F. Bott, ed. (John Wiley, 1976).

]) capable of operating at 1.0–2.5 atm [18

V. Ya. Agroskin, V. I. Kir'yanov, G. K. Vasiliev, and V. L. Tal’roze, “Comparative investigation of pulsed HF and DF–CO₂ chemical lasers,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 8(11), 1366–1370 (1978). [CrossRef]

]. A distinctive feature of such amplifiers is high optical homogeneity of their active medium and relatively high linear amplification factor [19

V. Ya. Agroskin, B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, S. A. Kashtanov, E. F. Makarov, S. A. Sotnichenko, and G. K. Vasiliev, “Promising high-pressure D₂–CO₂ laser for amplifying picosecond radiation pulses,” Quantum Electron. (to be published).

Note that the use of multicomponent active media containing two or more СО₂ isotopes can provide a quasi-continuous amplification band at a pressure of about 5 atm [11

, 20

Z. A. Biglov and V. M. Gordienko, “Powerful 10-μm picosecond systems,” in Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Ser. Sovrem. Probl. Laz. Fiziki, Moscow: VINITI, 1991, 4, 84–125 (in Russian).

]. First experiments in this line of research have appeared recently [21

M. N. Polyanskiy, I. V. Pogorelsky, and V. Yakimenko, “Picosecond pulse amplification in isotopic CO₂ active medium,” Opt. Express 19(8), 7717–7725 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

One of the bottlenecks in application of super powerful lasers is contrast ratio (see [22

S. Fourmaux, S. Payeur, S. Buffechoux, P. Lassonde, C. St-Pierre, F. Martin, and J. C. Kieffer, “Pedestal cleaning for high laser pulse contrast ratio with a 100 TW class laser system,” Opt. Express 19(9), 8486–8497 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

] and refs. therein). For mid-pressure final СО₂ amplifiers, minimization of the amplified noise restricting the output energy and the contrast ratio of 10-μm laser radiation is of key importance. The problem has been formulated previously [1

] but has not been analyzed in detail so far.

In this work, we numerically analyzed the temporal, energy, and noise parameters of laser radiation from a system of СО₂ amplifiers of IR picosecond pulses operating at 2.5–15-atm pressure of active media. A suggested scheme of laser system was optimized toward generation of a single pulse with duration τ = 2–3 ps and energy E = 40–50 J. Preliminary results of the analysis have been recently reported in [23

B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, V. M. Gordienko, E. F. Makarov, V. Ya. Panchenko, V. T. Platonenko, and G. K. Vasil'ev, “Multiterawatt CO₂ laser system with the output pulsed chemical DF-CO₂ laser,” Techn. Progr. 15th Int. Conf. “Laser Optics-2012”, St. Petersburg (Russia), 2012, ThR5–23.

2. Formulation of the problem and calculation procedure

The gain of any laser system is always restricted by the presence of spontaneous radiation (noise) depleting the inversion on approaching a saturating energy density. As CO₂ is an active media, the admissible overall gain, kL, is around 35 (corresponds to amplification of ~e³⁵), where k is the linear amplification factor at the band maximum and L the amplification length [1

]. The gain is also restricted by accidental feedback. For the above reasons, one pass through CO₂ amplifiers can hardly provide the kL values greater than 10. In light of this, a laser system with kL ~35 must include several amplifying sections (see Fig. 1 ) separated by optical isolators.

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of a СО₂ laser system: 1, generator of ultrashort 10-μm seed pulses; 2, optically pumped regenerative high-pressure СО₂ amplifier; 3, intermediate high-pressure СО₂ amplifier; 4, final mid-pressure СО₂ amplifier.

In our system (see Fig. 1), a seed pulse with the energy E ≥ 1 nJ is amplified in regenerative high-pressure СО₂ amplifier 2 to a magnitude of several mJ [14

]. This is followed by several passes through intermediate high-pressure СО₂ amplifier 3. Finally, mid-pressure СО₂ amplifier 4 operates in a regime of saturation.

Of key importance is the last stage in amplifier 4. For effective pick-up of the energy stored in active medium, the energy density of input radiation must be close to the saturation energy (or even higher). In order to attain high E values at low L, amplification must be organized with an expanding beam. Another important feature is the use of an intermediate high-pressure amplifier capable of producing a single pulse with the energy of around 1 J, thus lowering requirements on the final wide-aperture amplifier.

The evolution of an ultrashort pulse in a СО₂ amplifier was calculated by using a set of equations that takes into account the interaction of coherent IR radiation with vibrational–rotational spectrum of the CO₂ molecule and also diffraction [12

V. T. Platonenko and V. D. Taranukhin, “Coherent amplification of light pulses in media with a discrete spectrum,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 13(11), 1459–1466 (1983). [CrossRef]

, 13

, 24

V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, and A. F. Sterzhantov, “Self-interaction of powerful 10-μm laser emission in gaseous media: pulse duration control and generation of hot electrons,” Quantum Electron. 39(7), 663–668 (2009). [CrossRef]

]. In our case, input pulses were assumed to interact with several vibrational–rotational transitions in the gain spectrum of the СО₂ molecule. This is accompanied by frequency filtration of the input pulse. In the absence of saturation, the initially continuous spectrum turns into a discrete one and becomes better fitted to the gain spectrum. At output, we obtain a sequence of peaks at a separation corresponding to the inverse frequency interval between the lines. Once saturation mode is attained, the first pulse of the train is largely amplified and the envelop curve becomes shorter. In the limiting case, only the first pulse 'survives', which is important for applications.

Relaxation processes taking place in amplifier 2, were described by a system of kinetic equations [14

]. The gains in amplifiers 3 and 4 were taken (based on our recent experimental data) as starting data for determining the parameters of the active media (upon neglect by vibrational–vibrational and vibrational-translational energy transfer).

A population of vibrational–rotational levels of a СО₂ molecule was described using a three-temperature model (translational temperature and temperatures of the asymmetrical and bending modes). In our calculations, we took into account the transitions in the 001–100, 011–110, and 002–101 bands. Spectral data were taken from HITRAN-2008 database [25

L. S. Rothman, I. E. Gordon, A. Barbe, D. C. Benner, P. F. Bernath, M. Birk, V. Boudon, L. R. Brown, A. Campargue, J.-P. Champion, K. Chance, L. H. Coudert, V. Dana, V. M. Devi, S. Fally, J.-M. Flaud, R. R. Gamache, A. Goldman, D. Jacquemart, I. Kleiner, N. Lacome, W. J. Lafferty, J.-Y. Mandin, S. T. Massie, S. N. Mikhailenko, C. E. Miller, N. Moazzen-Ahmadi, O. V. Naumenko, A. V. Nikitin, J. Orphal, V. I. Perevalov, A. Perrin, A. Predoi-Cross, C. P. Rinsland, M. Rotger, M. Šimečková, M. A. H. Smith, K. Sung, S. A. Tashkun, J. Tennyson, R. A. Toth, A. C. Vandaele, and J. Vander Auwera, “The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database,” J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radia. 110(9–10), 533–572 (2009). [CrossRef]

2.1 Problem of noise

Simple estimates show that a main source of noise in the entire system is amplifier 2 where the amplification factor is high (above 10⁶). Note that in our case (when the seed pulse is formed in a parametric amplifier), contribution from quantum noise of parametric amplifier [26

V. M. Gordienko, P. M. Mikheev, and V. I. Pryalkin, “Effective parametric generation of femtosecond IR radiation in a scheme using properties of group matching,” Quantum Electron. 28(1), 37–42 (1999).

] is insignificant. Spectral density of noise energy E_ω in amplifier 2 was calculated from the equation:

\frac{\partial E_{ω}}{\partial t} = P_{ω} \frac{Ω}{4 π} + c \frac{l}{L} G_{ω} E_{ω},

(1)

where Р_ω is the spectral density of noise power, G_ω linear amplification factor,

l

length of active medium,

L

length of resonator,

Ω = S / L^{2}

solid angle, and S cross section of amplified beam. Factor G_ω was calculated from the expression:

G_{ω} = \sum_{k} (N_{k}^{u} - N_{k}^{d}) σ_{k} g_{k} (ω) .

(2)

Here

k

refers to all relevant vibrational–rotational transitions;

N_{k}^{u}

and

N_{k}^{d}

are the populations of the upper (u) and lower (d) levels of the k-th transition;

σ_{k}^{}

and

g_{k}

are its overall cross section and line shape factor, respectively. For some preset parameters of active medium (pressure, temperature, composition, mean quantum energies in the asymmetrical and bending modes), we calculated the values of

N_{k}^{u}

N_{k}^{d}

, and

σ_{k}^{}

. For the spectral density of noise Р_ω, we have:

P_{ω} = l S ℏ ω \sum_{k} N_{k}^{u} A_{k} g_{k} (ω),

(3)

where

A_{k}

is the Einstein coefficient for the k-th transition. In amplifiers 3 and 4 (Fig. 1), spontaneous radiation is insignificant. Here the noise is amplified linearly:

\frac{\partial E_{ω}}{\partial z} = G_{ω} E_{ω} .

(4)

Noise in amplifier 2 is accumulated from the moment of optical pumping till the extraction of amplified seed pulse is complete [14

]. Then the accumulated noises along with the wanted signal are fed to the entrance of amplifier 3.

3. Amplification

Figure 2 shows the profile of gain G_ω in amplifier 2 for 10-μm P- and R-branches at different pressures (p) of active medium. With decreasing p, the practically continuous gain spectrum (especially in case of R-branch) gradually transforms into the discrete one. This implies that, with decreasing p, the effective amplification factors (convolution of radiation and gain spectra) for picosecond radiation and noise will be shifted in favor of noise. Note that, at higher p, the G_ω values for the R-branch are higher than those for the P-branch and the spectrum is smoother. Hence in order to suppress the amplification of subsequent peaks in the train, it is better that the central frequency of the seed pulse would be selected within the R-branch (vertical line in Fig. 2). It is just this frequency (973 cm^–1) that was used in our calculations.

Fig. 2 Gain profile for P- and R-branches at p = 15 (a), 10 (b), and 2.5 atm (c). Vertical lines indicate the central frequency of seed pulse.

The results of calculations for amplifier 2 were reported in [14

]. The amplification of a Gaussian beam (input energy E = 3 nJ and pulse duration τ = 1 ps) in a optically pumped regenerative СО₂ amplifier operating at p = 10–15 atm was calculated. At the output, pulse energy attained a value of about 3 mJ at pulse duration τ ≈2.5 ps. Figure 3 presents power P of ultrashort pulses at the output of amplifier 2 at p = 15 atm. At p = 10 atm, the second peak of the train was markedly stronger. We used the results obtained in [14

] as input parameters at the entrance to amplifier 3. Note that regenerative amplification of picosecond pulses in a ТЕ-СО₂ laser operating at 6–14 atm was reported in [27

P. Corkum, “Amplification of picosecond 10mcm pulses in multiatmosphere CO₂ lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 21(3), 216–232 (1985). [CrossRef]

Fig. 3 Power P of ultrashort pulses at the output of amplifier 2 (СО₂: He = 1:14, p = 15 atm) pumped by YSGG:Cr:Er laser (j = 3 J/cm², τ = 50 ns). Input pulse: τ = 0.7 ps, E = 1 nJ. Time interval between the peaks (26 ps) corresponds to separation between the vibrational–rotational lines in the 10R-branch.

According to our preliminary estimates, the pulse energy entering amplifier 4 must have a value of 1–2 J. A suitable candidate can be a ТЕ-СО₂ laser based on a СО₂–N₂–He mixture at p = 10 atm. A Gauss beam from amplifier 2 (p = 15 atm) 3 mm in diameter was allowed to propagate with expansion in amplifier 3. Calculations have shown that, at L = 110 cm and k = 0.024 cm^–1 [28

G. A. Baranov, A. A. Kuchinsky, P. V. Tomashevich, S. M. Kotov, and A. V. Vasil'ev, “Laser amplifier for picosecond CO₂ facilities of terawatt power level,” Plasma Dev. Oper. 16(1), 45–59 (2008). [CrossRef]

], three passes through amplifier 3 can produce a beam about 2 cm in diameter with E ~1.5 J and τ = 2.7 ps (see Fig. 4 ).

Fig. 4 Ultrashort pulses at the output of amplifier 3: band 10R; СО₂: N₂: He (2: 1: 7) mixture at p = 10 atm; first peak: τ = 2.7 ps, E = 1.5 J; input pulse: τ = 3 ps, E = 3 mJ; input energy density 0.03 J/cm²; energy density at the output 0.6 J/cm²; at the center of the R22 line, k =0.024 cm^–1.

As a final amplifier, we used a pulsed chemical DF–CO₂ laser (p = 2.5 atm). Such lasers with an aperture of 100–200 cm² are capable of producing picosecond pulse with energy of 50–100 J. These lasers are known for high optical homogeneity of their active media (unattainable for ТЕ-СО₂ lasers). DF–CO₂ lasers can provide high amplification factors (up to 0.062 cm^–1 at p = 1 atm and up to 0.052 cm^–1 at p = 2.5 atm [19

]). In experiments [19

], maximal amplification at p = 2.5 atm was achieved for a mixture СО₂:D₂:F₂:O₂:Не = 35:5:10:0.1:50. Moreover, DF–CO₂ lasers may turn out more compact and simpler than ТЕ-СО₂ lasers with similar parameters (for example [29

K. O. Tan, D. J. James, J. A. Nilson, N. H. Burnett, and A. J. Alcock, “Compact 0.1 TW CO₂ laser system,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 51(6), 776–780 (1980). [CrossRef]

]). In addition, modern methods for changing the active media are capable of providing a pulse repetition frequency on a level of 0.1 s^–1.

We believe that better results can be obtained only in case of amplification with an expanding laser beam. For this reason, our calculations were performed for a case of wide-aperture pulsed chemical DF–СО₂ amplifier. The results have shown that after three passes through an active medium with L = 110 cm, k = 0.04 cm^–1 (kL = 13.2) and at the input energy of about 1.5 J, the output energy can exceed 40 J at a beam aperture of around 80 cm². The axial energy density at the input was 0.45 J/cm², at τ = 2.7 ps. In this case, amplification is non-linear. Finally, the energy density at the output attained a value of 1 J/cm². The formation of a single pulse with τ = 2.5 ps and a nearly Gaussian shape was predominant (see Fig. 5 ). Note that the calculations are made with the transverse beam structure, that makes them more realistic in comparison with previous analysis.

Fig. 5 The train of 10-μm pulses at the output of the final DF–CO₂ amplifier (p = 2.5 atm). First pulse: Е = 41 J, τ = 2.5 ps, W(0.5r) = 1.0 J/cm², kL = 12.5. Input pulse: Е = 1.5 J, W=0.45 J/cm².

In our opinion, a decrease in τ with increasing energy density can be associated with involvement of ever growing amount of vibrational–rotational transitions into the amplification process.

Figure 6 shows the energy of IR laser radiation at the output of amplifier 4 as a function of the amplification length L. The dependence is seen to be close to a cubic one (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6 Energy E of IR laser radiation at the output of final amplifier as a function of L.

Preliminary calculation results of chirped-pulse amplification in amplifier 4 have demonstrated that the output energy can be improved by a value of 20–30%. Compared to transform-limited ones, chirped pulses are better amplified in a saturated regime because of their interaction with a larger number of V-R transitions. In case of transform-limited pulses, the population difference is varied on a not large (3–4) number of V-R transitions, although the change in the population difference is relatively large. A chirped pulse interacts with a larger number (6–8) of V-R transitions but the change in the population difference at some V-R transitions is lower. As a result, the amplification of chirped pulses turns out more effective.

Therefore, a 15 TW laser system producing mainly a single pulse with E ≈40 J and τ ≈2.5 ps may comprise of (a) a generator of seed pulse with ν = 973 cm^–1, E ~3 nJ, and τ ~1 ps; (b) a regenerative amplifier (gain factor 10⁶), p = 15 atm, (c) an intermediate amplifier with kL ~8.3, p = 10 atm; and (d) a final amplifier with an aperture of ~100 cm², kL ~13, p = 2.5 atm.

4. Noise generated in amplifiers

In a multistage laser system, the minimization of amplified noise is of key importance. In the present estimates, the parameters of amplifier 2 were taken from [14

]: L = 15 cm, beam diameter 2.5 mm, resonator length 30 cm, spot size at the mirror 0.05 cm², and p = 15 atm. It was also assumed that the main source of noise is the spontaneous radiation of СО₂ molecules in amplifier 2. The accumulation of noise was calculated by using Eqs. (1)–(3) with account of evolution in the population of energy levels (duration of pumping pulse 50 ns). Then the parameters of noise during amplification in units 3 and 4 (see Fig. 1) were calculated using Eqs. (2)–(4). The results are collected in Table 1 .

Table 1 Results of calculations.

	Output of amplifier 2	Output of amplifier 3	Output of amplifier 4
Noise energy in the P-branch, J	5·10⁻¹⁰	1.0·10⁻⁶	0.11
Noise energy in the R-branch, J	3·10⁻⁹	1.3·10⁻⁵	0.37
Total noise energy, J	3.5·10⁻⁹	1.4·10⁻⁵	0.48
Energy of picosecond pulse, J	0.003	1.5	40
Contrast ratio	8.6·10⁵	1.1·10⁵	80

Figure 7 presents the calculated noise at the output of amplifiers 2, 3, and 4 (see Fig. 1). The initially continuous noise spectrum gradually transforms into the linear (discrete) one. But the spectral maximum does not shift; this is because the overall gain in the regenerative and intermediate amplifier is about five orders of magnitude higher than that in the final amplifier. As established from Table 1, amplifier 3 operating at high pressure (p = 10 atm) worsens the contrast ratio by a factor of 8 while amplifier 4 (p = 2.5 atm), by three orders of magnitude. The higher kL in amplifier 4, the lower the energy contrast ratio. This can be related to the fact that in amplifier 4 the gain factors for picosecond pulses and noise are strongly different.

Fig. 7 Spectrum of noise at the output of the regenerative (a), intermediate (b), and final amplifiers (c).

It is clear that generation of high energy (≥40 J) in short pulses with an admissible contrast ratio requires extraction of the largest amount of laser energy from an intermediate amplifier, which is important for studies within the range of relativistic intensities. Note that the contrast ratio can also be improved by using saturable filters as discussed in [30

R. F. Haglund, A. V. Nowak, and S. J. Czuchlewski, “Gaseous saturable absorbers for the Helios CO₂ laser system,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 17(9), 1799–1808 (1981). [CrossRef]

] with regard to amplification of nanosecond pulses in an atmospheric-pressure laser working in 10P branch. In high-pressure lasers, a composition of gaseous absorber can be markedly different because the shape of amplification band depends strongly on the pressure. In view of this, the problem deserves special consideration. It is also worth mentioning that the use of gas targets for acceleration of ions and electrons under the action of superpower 10-μm laser radiation [2

–4

] can soften strict requirements on the contrast ratio as compared to the experiments with condensed targets.

Conclusions

The simulations performed clearly show that multi-terawatt picoseconds 10-μm laser system (τ ≈2.5 ps, E ≈40 J, P ≈15 TW) is applicable to investigating ultra-relativistic interaction of laser radiation with matter and can be designed in the following configuration: (i) master oscillator producing ultrashort seed pulses; (ii) optically pumped regenerative high-pressure (p = 15 atm) amplifier; (iii) intermediate high-pressure СО₂ amplifier (p = 10 atm); and (vi) final mid-pressure DF–СО₂ amplifier (p = 2.5 atm).

Mid-pressure amplification of picosecond pulses in a discrete spectrum leads to formation of a train of picosecond peaks. In order to minimize the second and third peaks of the train, it is desirable that (a) amplification be carried out in a mode of deep saturation at high energy density and (b) input radiation be practically single-pulse. The presence of high-pressure intermediate amplifier markedly improves the signal to noise ratio.

A maximal energy of single pulse is attained in the R-branch of amplification band.

The energy contrast ratio of the output radiation can be expected to attain a value of around 80.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 11-02-12197-OFI-M-2011).

References and links:

1.	B. G. Bravy, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, S. G. Rykovanov, and G. K. Vasiliev, “Sub-picosecond petawatt class N₂O laser system: mid-IR non-linear optics and new possibilities for high energy physics,” Proc. SPIE 6735, 67350L, 67350L-10 (2007). [CrossRef]
2.	I. Pogorelsky, P. Shkolnikov, M. Chen, A. Pukhov, V. Yakimenko, P. McKenna, D. Carroll, D. Neely, Z. Najmudin, L. Willingale, D. Stolyarov, E. Stolyarova, G. Flynn, C. B. Schroeder, W. Leemans, and E. Esarey, “Proton and ion beams generated with picosecond CO₂ laser pulses,” AIP Conf. Proc. 1086, 532–537 (2009). [CrossRef]
3.	D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, and C. Joshi, “Fifteen terawatt picosecond CO₂ laser system,” Opt. Express 18(17), 17865–17875 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
4.	V. M. Gordienko and V. T. Platonenko, “Powerful picosecond 10 μm laser radiation in gaseous and cluster media: pulse duration control, particle acceleration and nuclear excitation,” Abstr. Int. Conf. on Superstrong Fields in Plasmas, October 3–9, 2010, Varenna (Italy), Thu/I-2.
5.	C. A. Palmer, N. P. Dover, I. Pogorelsky, M. Babzien, G. I. Dudnikova, M. Ispiriyan, M. N. Polyanskiy, J. Schreiber, P. Shkolnikov, V. Yakimenko, and Z. Najmudin, “Monoenergetic proton beams accelerated by a radiation pressure driven shock,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 106(1), 014801 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
6.	D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, F. Fiuza, C. Gong, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi, “Collisionless shocks in laser-produced plasma generate monoenergetic high-energy proton beams,” Nat. Phys. 8(1), 95–99 (2011). [CrossRef]
7.	A. A. Voronin, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. Ya. Panchenko, and A. M. Zheltikov, “Ionization-assisted guided-wave pulse compression to extreme peak powers and single-cycle pulse widths in the mid-infrared,” Opt. Lett. 35(21), 3640–3642 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
8.	T. Popmintchev, M. Chen, P. Arpin, M. Murnane, and H. Kapteyn, “The attosecond nonlinear optics of bright coherent X-ray generation,” Nat. Photonics 4(12), 822–832 (2010). [CrossRef]
9.	T. Popmintchev, M.-C. Chen, D. Popmintchev, P. Arpin, S. Brown, S. Alisauskas, G. Andriukaitis, T. Balciunas, O. D. Mücke, A. Pugzlys, A. Baltuska, B. Shim, S. E. Schrauth, A. L. Gaeta, C. Hernández-García, L. Plaja, A. Becker, A. Jaron-Becker, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, “Bright coherent ultrahigh harmonics in the keV x-ray regime from mid-infrared femtosecond lasers,” Science 336(6086), 1287–1291 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
10.	P. V. Corkum and C. Rolland, “High energy picosecond 10-μm pulses,” Proc. SPIE 664, 212–216 (1986). [CrossRef]
11.	Z. A. Biglov, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. A. Slobodyanyuk, V. D. Taranukhin, and S. Y. Ten, “Generation and amplification of 10-μm phase-modulated picoseconds pulses,” Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR., Phys. Ser. 55(2), 135–143 (1991).
12.	V. T. Platonenko and V. D. Taranukhin, “Coherent amplification of light pulses in media with a discrete spectrum,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 13(11), 1459–1466 (1983). [CrossRef]
13.	D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, Ch. Gong, Ch. Joshi, S. H. Gold, and G. S. Nusinovich, “Production of multi-terawatt time-structured CO₂ laser pulses for ion acceleration,” 14^th Adv. Accelerator Concepts Workshop, AIP Conf. Proc. 1299, 737–742 (2010). [CrossRef]
14.	V. M. Gordienko and V. T. Platonenko, “Regenerative amplification of ps pulses from a high-pressure 10-μm CO₂ laser with optical pumping,” Quantum Electron. 40(12), 1118–1122 (2010). [CrossRef]
15.	Yu. I. Bychkov, B. M. Koval'chuk, G. P. Kuz'min, G. A. Mesyats, and V. F. Tarasenko, “Wide -aperture CO₂ lasers pumped with an electron-beam-controlled discharge,” Russ. Phys. J. 43(5), 345–351 (2000). [CrossRef]
16.	B. G. Bravy, G. K. Vasiliev, E. F. Makarov, and Yu. A. Chernyshev, “Superpowerful lasers on chain chemical reactions for studying dense relativistic plasma and laser fusion,” Proc. SPIE 4747, 1–8 (2002). [CrossRef]
17.	T. A. Cool, “Transfer chemical lasers,” in Handbook of Chemical Lasers, R. W. F. Gross and J. F. Bott, ed. (John Wiley, 1976).
18.	V. Ya. Agroskin, V. I. Kir'yanov, G. K. Vasiliev, and V. L. Tal’roze, “Comparative investigation of pulsed HF and DF–CO₂ chemical lasers,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron. 8(11), 1366–1370 (1978). [CrossRef]
19.	V. Ya. Agroskin, B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, S. A. Kashtanov, E. F. Makarov, S. A. Sotnichenko, and G. K. Vasiliev, “Promising high-pressure D₂–CO₂ laser for amplifying picosecond radiation pulses,” Quantum Electron. (to be published).
20.	Z. A. Biglov and V. M. Gordienko, “Powerful 10-μm picosecond systems,” in Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Ser. Sovrem. Probl. Laz. Fiziki, Moscow: VINITI, 1991, 4, 84–125 (in Russian).
21.	M. N. Polyanskiy, I. V. Pogorelsky, and V. Yakimenko, “Picosecond pulse amplification in isotopic CO₂ active medium,” Opt. Express 19(8), 7717–7725 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
22.	S. Fourmaux, S. Payeur, S. Buffechoux, P. Lassonde, C. St-Pierre, F. Martin, and J. C. Kieffer, “Pedestal cleaning for high laser pulse contrast ratio with a 100 TW class laser system,” Opt. Express 19(9), 8486–8497 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
23.	B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, V. M. Gordienko, E. F. Makarov, V. Ya. Panchenko, V. T. Platonenko, and G. K. Vasil'ev, “Multiterawatt CO₂ laser system with the output pulsed chemical DF-CO₂ laser,” Techn. Progr. 15th Int. Conf. “Laser Optics-2012”, St. Petersburg (Russia), 2012, ThR5–23.
24.	V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, and A. F. Sterzhantov, “Self-interaction of powerful 10-μm laser emission in gaseous media: pulse duration control and generation of hot electrons,” Quantum Electron. 39(7), 663–668 (2009). [CrossRef]
25.	L. S. Rothman, I. E. Gordon, A. Barbe, D. C. Benner, P. F. Bernath, M. Birk, V. Boudon, L. R. Brown, A. Campargue, J.-P. Champion, K. Chance, L. H. Coudert, V. Dana, V. M. Devi, S. Fally, J.-M. Flaud, R. R. Gamache, A. Goldman, D. Jacquemart, I. Kleiner, N. Lacome, W. J. Lafferty, J.-Y. Mandin, S. T. Massie, S. N. Mikhailenko, C. E. Miller, N. Moazzen-Ahmadi, O. V. Naumenko, A. V. Nikitin, J. Orphal, V. I. Perevalov, A. Perrin, A. Predoi-Cross, C. P. Rinsland, M. Rotger, M. Šimečková, M. A. H. Smith, K. Sung, S. A. Tashkun, J. Tennyson, R. A. Toth, A. C. Vandaele, and J. Vander Auwera, “The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database,” J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radia. 110(9–10), 533–572 (2009). [CrossRef]
26.	V. M. Gordienko, P. M. Mikheev, and V. I. Pryalkin, “Effective parametric generation of femtosecond IR radiation in a scheme using properties of group matching,” Quantum Electron. 28(1), 37–42 (1999).
27.	P. Corkum, “Amplification of picosecond 10mcm pulses in multiatmosphere CO₂ lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 21(3), 216–232 (1985). [CrossRef]
28.	G. A. Baranov, A. A. Kuchinsky, P. V. Tomashevich, S. M. Kotov, and A. V. Vasil'ev, “Laser amplifier for picosecond CO₂ facilities of terawatt power level,” Plasma Dev. Oper. 16(1), 45–59 (2008). [CrossRef]
29.	K. O. Tan, D. J. James, J. A. Nilson, N. H. Burnett, and A. J. Alcock, “Compact 0.1 TW CO₂ laser system,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 51(6), 776–780 (1980). [CrossRef]
30.	R. F. Haglund, A. V. Nowak, and S. J. Czuchlewski, “Gaseous saturable absorbers for the Helios CO₂ laser system,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 17(9), 1799–1808 (1981). [CrossRef]

OCIS Codes
(140.1550) Lasers and laser optics : Chemical lasers
(140.3470) Lasers and laser optics : Lasers, carbon dioxide
(140.7090) Lasers and laser optics : Ultrafast lasers

ToC Category:
Lasers and Laser Optics

History
Original Manuscript: September 6, 2012
Revised Manuscript: September 27, 2012
Manuscript Accepted: October 16, 2012
Published: October 25, 2012

Citation
B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, V. M. Gordienko, E. F. Makarov, V. Ya. Panchenko, V. T. Platonenko, and G. K. Vasil'ev, "Multi-terawatt picoseconds 10-μm СО₂ laser system: design and parameters' control," Opt. Express 20, 25536-25544 (2012)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-20-23-25536

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References

B. G. Bravy, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, S. G. Rykovanov, and G. K. Vasiliev, “Sub-picosecond petawatt class N2O laser system: mid-IR non-linear optics and new possibilities for high energy physics,” Proc. SPIE6735, 67350L, 67350L-10 (2007). [CrossRef]
I. Pogorelsky, P. Shkolnikov, M. Chen, A. Pukhov, V. Yakimenko, P. McKenna, D. Carroll, D. Neely, Z. Najmudin, L. Willingale, D. Stolyarov, E. Stolyarova, G. Flynn, C. B. Schroeder, W. Leemans, and E. Esarey, “Proton and ion beams generated with picosecond CO2 laser pulses,” AIP Conf. Proc.1086, 532–537 (2009). [CrossRef]
D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, and C. Joshi, “Fifteen terawatt picosecond CO2 laser system,” Opt. Express18(17), 17865–17875 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
V. M. Gordienko and V. T. Platonenko, “Powerful picosecond 10 μm laser radiation in gaseous and cluster media: pulse duration control, particle acceleration and nuclear excitation,” Abstr. Int. Conf. on Superstrong Fields in Plasmas, October 3–9, 2010, Varenna (Italy), Thu/I-2.
C. A. Palmer, N. P. Dover, I. Pogorelsky, M. Babzien, G. I. Dudnikova, M. Ispiriyan, M. N. Polyanskiy, J. Schreiber, P. Shkolnikov, V. Yakimenko, and Z. Najmudin, “Monoenergetic proton beams accelerated by a radiation pressure driven shock,” Phys. Rev. Lett.106(1), 014801 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, F. Fiuza, C. Gong, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi, “Collisionless shocks in laser-produced plasma generate monoenergetic high-energy proton beams,” Nat. Phys.8(1), 95–99 (2011). [CrossRef]
A. A. Voronin, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. Ya. Panchenko, and A. M. Zheltikov, “Ionization-assisted guided-wave pulse compression to extreme peak powers and single-cycle pulse widths in the mid-infrared,” Opt. Lett.35(21), 3640–3642 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
T. Popmintchev, M. Chen, P. Arpin, M. Murnane, and H. Kapteyn, “The attosecond nonlinear optics of bright coherent X-ray generation,” Nat. Photonics4(12), 822–832 (2010). [CrossRef]
T. Popmintchev, M.-C. Chen, D. Popmintchev, P. Arpin, S. Brown, S. Alisauskas, G. Andriukaitis, T. Balciunas, O. D. Mücke, A. Pugzlys, A. Baltuska, B. Shim, S. E. Schrauth, A. L. Gaeta, C. Hernández-García, L. Plaja, A. Becker, A. Jaron-Becker, M. M. Murnane, and H. C. Kapteyn, “Bright coherent ultrahigh harmonics in the keV x-ray regime from mid-infrared femtosecond lasers,” Science336(6086), 1287–1291 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
P. V. Corkum and C. Rolland, “High energy picosecond 10-μm pulses,” Proc. SPIE664, 212–216 (1986). [CrossRef]
Z. A. Biglov, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. A. Slobodyanyuk, V. D. Taranukhin, and S. Y. Ten, “Generation and amplification of 10-μm phase-modulated picoseconds pulses,” Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR., Phys. Ser.55(2), 135–143 (1991).
V. T. Platonenko and V. D. Taranukhin, “Coherent amplification of light pulses in media with a discrete spectrum,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron.13(11), 1459–1466 (1983). [CrossRef]
D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, Ch. Gong, Ch. Joshi, S. H. Gold, and G. S. Nusinovich, “Production of multi-terawatt time-structured CO2 laser pulses for ion acceleration,” 14th Adv. Accelerator Concepts Workshop, AIP Conf. Proc.1299, 737–742 (2010). [CrossRef]
V. M. Gordienko and V. T. Platonenko, “Regenerative amplification of ps pulses from a high-pressure 10-μm CO2 laser with optical pumping,” Quantum Electron.40(12), 1118–1122 (2010). [CrossRef]
Yu. I. Bychkov, B. M. Koval'chuk, G. P. Kuz'min, G. A. Mesyats, and V. F. Tarasenko, “Wide -aperture CO2 lasers pumped with an electron-beam-controlled discharge,” Russ. Phys. J.43(5), 345–351 (2000). [CrossRef]
B. G. Bravy, G. K. Vasiliev, E. F. Makarov, and Yu. A. Chernyshev, “Superpowerful lasers on chain chemical reactions for studying dense relativistic plasma and laser fusion,” Proc. SPIE4747, 1–8 (2002). [CrossRef]
T. A. Cool, “Transfer chemical lasers,” in Handbook of Chemical Lasers, R. W. F. Gross and J. F. Bott, ed. (John Wiley, 1976).
V. Ya. Agroskin, V. I. Kir'yanov, G. K. Vasiliev, and V. L. Tal’roze, “Comparative investigation of pulsed HF and DF–CO2 chemical lasers,” Sov. J. Quantum Electron.8(11), 1366–1370 (1978). [CrossRef]
V. Ya. Agroskin, B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, S. A. Kashtanov, E. F. Makarov, S. A. Sotnichenko, and G. K. Vasiliev, “Promising high-pressure D2–CO2 laser for amplifying picosecond radiation pulses,” Quantum Electron. (to be published).
Z. A. Biglov and V. M. Gordienko, “Powerful 10-μm picosecond systems,” in Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki, Ser. Sovrem. Probl. Laz. Fiziki, Moscow: VINITI, 1991, 4, 84–125 (in Russian).
M. N. Polyanskiy, I. V. Pogorelsky, and V. Yakimenko, “Picosecond pulse amplification in isotopic CO2 active medium,” Opt. Express19(8), 7717–7725 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
S. Fourmaux, S. Payeur, S. Buffechoux, P. Lassonde, C. St-Pierre, F. Martin, and J. C. Kieffer, “Pedestal cleaning for high laser pulse contrast ratio with a 100 TW class laser system,” Opt. Express19(9), 8486–8497 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
B. G. Bravy, Yu. A. Chernyshev, V. M. Gordienko, E. F. Makarov, V. Ya. Panchenko, V. T. Platonenko, and G. K. Vasil'ev, “Multiterawatt CO2 laser system with the output pulsed chemical DF-CO2 laser,” Techn. Progr. 15th Int. Conf. “Laser Optics-2012”, St. Petersburg (Russia), 2012, ThR5–23.
V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, and A. F. Sterzhantov, “Self-interaction of powerful 10-μm laser emission in gaseous media: pulse duration control and generation of hot electrons,” Quantum Electron.39(7), 663–668 (2009). [CrossRef]
L. S. Rothman, I. E. Gordon, A. Barbe, D. C. Benner, P. F. Bernath, M. Birk, V. Boudon, L. R. Brown, A. Campargue, J.-P. Champion, K. Chance, L. H. Coudert, V. Dana, V. M. Devi, S. Fally, J.-M. Flaud, R. R. Gamache, A. Goldman, D. Jacquemart, I. Kleiner, N. Lacome, W. J. Lafferty, J.-Y. Mandin, S. T. Massie, S. N. Mikhailenko, C. E. Miller, N. Moazzen-Ahmadi, O. V. Naumenko, A. V. Nikitin, J. Orphal, V. I. Perevalov, A. Perrin, A. Predoi-Cross, C. P. Rinsland, M. Rotger, M. Šimečková, M. A. H. Smith, K. Sung, S. A. Tashkun, J. Tennyson, R. A. Toth, A. C. Vandaele, and J. Vander Auwera, “The HITRAN 2008 molecular spectroscopic database,” J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radia.110(9–10), 533–572 (2009). [CrossRef]
V. M. Gordienko, P. M. Mikheev, and V. I. Pryalkin, “Effective parametric generation of femtosecond IR radiation in a scheme using properties of group matching,” Quantum Electron.28(1), 37–42 (1999).
P. Corkum, “Amplification of picosecond 10mcm pulses in multiatmosphere CO2 lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.21(3), 216–232 (1985). [CrossRef]
G. A. Baranov, A. A. Kuchinsky, P. V. Tomashevich, S. M. Kotov, and A. V. Vasil'ev, “Laser amplifier for picosecond CO2 facilities of terawatt power level,” Plasma Dev. Oper.16(1), 45–59 (2008). [CrossRef]
K. O. Tan, D. J. James, J. A. Nilson, N. H. Burnett, and A. J. Alcock, “Compact 0.1 TW CO2 laser system,” Rev. Sci. Instrum.51(6), 776–780 (1980). [CrossRef]
R. F. Haglund, A. V. Nowak, and S. J. Czuchlewski, “Gaseous saturable absorbers for the Helios CO2 laser system,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.17(9), 1799–1808 (1981). [CrossRef]

Agroskin, V. Ya.
Alcock, A. J.
Alisauskas, S.
Andriukaitis, G.
Arpin, P.
Babzien, M.
Balciunas, T.
Baltuska, A.
Baranov, G. A.
Barbe, A.
Becker, A.
Benner, D. C.
Bernath, P. F.
Biglov, Z. A.
Birk, M.
Boudon, V.
Bravy, B. G.
Brown, L. R.
Brown, S.
Buffechoux, S.
Burnett, N. H.
Bychkov, Yu. I.
Campargue, A.
Carroll, D.
Champion, J.-P.
Chance, K.
Chen, M.
Chen, M.-C.
Chernyshev, Yu. A.
Corkum, P.
Corkum, P. V.
Coudert, L. H.
Czuchlewski, S. J.
Dana, V.
Devi, V. M.
Dover, N. P.
Dudnikova, G. I.
Esarey, E.
Fally, S.
Fiuza, F.
Flaud, J.-M.
Flynn, G.
Fonseca, R. A.
Fourmaux, S.
Gaeta, A. L.
Gamache, R. R.
Gold, S. H.
Goldman, A.
Gong, C.
Gong, Ch.
Gordienko, V. M.
Gordon, I. E.
Haberberger, D.
Haglund, R. F.
Hernández-García, C.
Ispiriyan, M.
Jacquemart, D.
James, D. J.
Jaron-Becker, A.
Joshi, C.
Joshi, Ch.
Kapteyn, H.
Kapteyn, H. C.
Kashtanov, S. A.
Kieffer, J. C.
Kir'yanov, V. I.
Kleiner, I.
Kotov, S. M.
Koval'chuk, B. M.
Kuchinsky, A. A.
Kuz'min, G. P.
Lacome, N.
Lafferty, W. J.
Lassonde, P.
Leemans, W.
Makarov, E. F.
Mandin, J.-Y.
Martin, F.
Massie, S. T.
McKenna, P.
Mesyats, G. A.
Mikhailenko, S. N.
Mikheev, P. M.
Miller, C. E.
Moazzen-Ahmadi, N.
Mori, W. B.
Mücke, O. D.
Murnane, M.
Murnane, M. M.
Najmudin, Z.
Naumenko, O. V.
Neely, D.
Nikitin, A. V.
Nilson, J. A.
Nowak, A. V.
Nusinovich, G. S.
Orphal, J.
Palmer, C. A.
Panchenko, V. Ya.
Payeur, S.
Perevalov, V. I.
Perrin, A.
Plaja, L.
Platonenko, V. T.
Pogorelsky, I.
Pogorelsky, I. V.
Polyanskiy, M. N.
Popmintchev, D.
Popmintchev, T.
Predoi-Cross, A.
Pryalkin, V. I.
Pugzlys, A.
Pukhov, A.
Rinsland, C. P.
Rolland, C.
Rotger, M.
Rothman, L. S.
Rykovanov, S. G.
Schrauth, S. E.
Schreiber, J.
Schroeder, C. B.
Shim, B.
Shkolnikov, P.
Silva, L. O.
Šimecková, M.
Slobodyanyuk, V. A.
Smith, M. A. H.
Sotnichenko, S. A.
Sterzhantov, A. F.
Stolyarov, D.
Stolyarova, E.
St-Pierre, C.
Sung, K.
Tal’roze, V. L.
Tan, K. O.
Taranukhin, V. D.
Tarasenko, V. F.
Tashkun, S. A.
Ten, S. Y.
Tennyson, J.
Tochitsky, S.
Tomashevich, P. V.
Toth, R. A.
Vandaele, A. C.
Vander Auwera, J.
Vasil'ev, A. V.
Vasiliev, G. K.
Voronin, A. A.
Willingale, L.
Yakimenko, V.
Zheltikov, A. M.

AIP Conf. Proc.

I. Pogorelsky, P. Shkolnikov, M. Chen, A. Pukhov, V. Yakimenko, P. McKenna, D. Carroll, D. Neely, Z. Najmudin, L. Willingale, D. Stolyarov, E. Stolyarova, G. Flynn, C. B. Schroeder, W. Leemans, and E. Esarey, “Proton and ion beams generated with picosecond CO2 laser pulses,” AIP Conf. Proc.1086, 532–537 (2009). [CrossRef]
D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, Ch. Gong, Ch. Joshi, S. H. Gold, and G. S. Nusinovich, “Production of multi-terawatt time-structured CO2 laser pulses for ion acceleration,” 14th Adv. Accelerator Concepts Workshop, AIP Conf. Proc.1299, 737–742 (2010). [CrossRef]

Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR., Phys. Ser.

Z. A. Biglov, V. M. Gordienko, V. T. Platonenko, V. A. Slobodyanyuk, V. D. Taranukhin, and S. Y. Ten, “Generation and amplification of 10-μm phase-modulated picoseconds pulses,” Bull. Acad. Sci. USSR., Phys. Ser.55(2), 135–143 (1991).

IEEE J. Quantum Electron.

P. Corkum, “Amplification of picosecond 10mcm pulses in multiatmosphere CO2 lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.21(3), 216–232 (1985). [CrossRef]
R. F. Haglund, A. V. Nowak, and S. J. Czuchlewski, “Gaseous saturable absorbers for the Helios CO2 laser system,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.17(9), 1799–1808 (1981). [CrossRef]

J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radia.

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