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We report on the generation and delivery of 10.2 PW peak power laser pulses, using the High Power Laser System at the Extreme Laser Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics facility. In this work we demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the compression and propagation of full energy, full aperture, laser pulses that reach a power level of more than 10 PW.

We report the generation of unprecedented 10 PetaWatt laser pulses obtained from each of the two beamlines of the High Power Laser System (HPLS) of ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics) research infrastructure. The laser system is a hybrid system made of a double CPA based on amplification within Titanium Sapphire crystals combined with an OPCPA with a parametric amplification stage boosting the energy to 10 mJ at the entrance of the second CPA. A XPW filter is also inserted between the two CPA and in combination with the OPCPA improves the temporal contrast of the pulses by typically 7 orders of magnitude. The spectral effects occurring during amplification such as gain narrowing and wavelength shifting are compensated through the use of spectral filters. Final amplification stages are involving large aperture Ti:Sapphire crystals (up to 200 mm) which are pumped by high energy frequencydoubled Nd:Glass lasers delivering each 100 J of green light. Laser beams have been amplified respectively up to 332 J and to 342 J of pulse energy at 1 shot per minute without any occurrence of ASE and transverse lasing thanks to index matching fluid surrounding the crystal over is entire length and pump deposition management over the time before each beam pass within the Ti:Sapphire crystal. We have demonstrated full aperture compression by metric gratings of these amplified pulses down to 22.6 fs and therefore made the full demonstration for the first time ever of 10 PW capability from a laser system.

Following the completion of the installation and testing of the HPLS 2x10PW laser system at ELI-NP, prospective experiments related to spectral broadening in thin films for post-compression were performed at the HPLS 100TW output.

We report on a two-arm hybrid high-power laser system (HPLS) able to deliver 2 × 10 PW femtosecond pulses, developed at the Bucharest-Magurele Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) Facility. A hybrid front-end (FE) based on a Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier and a picosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on beta barium borate (BBO) crystals, with a cross-polarized wave (XPW) filter in between, has been developed. It delivers 10 mJ laser pulses, at 10 Hz repetition rate, with more than 70 nm spectral bandwidth and high-intensity contrast, in the range of 1013:1. The high-energy Ti:sapphire amplifier stages of both arms were seeded from this common FE. The final high-energy amplifier, equipped with a 200 mm diameter Ti:sapphire crystal, has been pumped by six 100 J nanosecond frequency doubled Nd:glass lasers, at 1 pulse/min repetition rate. More than 300 J output pulse energy has been obtained by pumping with only 80% of the whole 600 J available pump energy. The compressor has a transmission efficiency of 74% and an output pulse duration of 22.7 fs was measured, thus demonstrating that the dual-arm HPLS has the capacity to generate 10 PW peak power femtosecond pulses. The reported results represent the cornerstone of the ELI-NP 2 × 10 PW femtosecond laser facility, devoted to fundamental and applied nuclear physics research.

The demonstration of the first 10 PW pulses during March 2019 the High Power Laser System at ELI-NP together with extensive tests, provides now the possibility to evaluate the ultrahigh irradiance in reach.

We have shown, for the first time in the world, the production of 10 PW peak power laser pulses and their propagation to an experimental area at the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP). We are also steadily running the laser system for experimental campaigns, increasing the output power levels delivered for experiments and fine-tuning the parameters of the laser pulses, the operational procedures, and the operational teams. During our presentation, we will show the laser developments at ELI-NP emphasizing the 10 PW peak power demonstrations and the latest results for the HPLS beam delivery.

Two glass prisms are brought in close proximity. The evanescent field fromthe total internal reflection in one prism is used to obtain a beam with an irradiance tunableover 110 dB, with potential applications from medicine to materials processing.