Modelling of a reflective waveplate for high-power lasers

The polarization state of a laser has a huge bearing on the physics of laser-plasma interactions and it is often desirable to change between linear and circular. For short pulse high power lasers large beam apertures are necessary for transportation. However, in these extreme conditions transmissive birefringent polarization optics become impractical due to their delicacy and their dispersion of the laser bandwidth which will increase the pulse length, which along with large B-integrals, which arises from the transmission of the high-power beams through optics, can be detrimental to the intensity of the laser. It is therefore necessary to consider reflective optics in order to change the polarization. Modelling has been performed at the Central Laser Facility on a design of a large aperture broadband reflective waveplate suitable for short pulse laser systems.