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Recent progress in the development of pulse compression gratings

Authors :: Jérôme Néauport
S. Hocquet
Nicolas Bonod
Centre d'études scientifiques et techniques d'Aquitaine (CESTA)
Direction des Applications Militaires (DAM)
Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)
Institut FRESNEL (FRESNEL)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)
Exarhos
GJ
Gruzdev
VE
Menapace
JA
Ristau
Soileau
MJ
Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Source :: Proccedings of SPIE, 43rd Annual Laser Damage Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, 43rd Annual Laser Damage Symposium on Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, Sep 2011, Boulder, United States. pp.81900O, ⟨10.1117/12.897711⟩, EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol 59, p 07002 (2013)
Publication Year :: 2011
Publisher :: SPIE, 2011.
Abstract: International audience; A Petawatt facility called PETAL (PETawatt Aquitaine Laser) is under development near the LMJ (Laser MegaJoule) at CEA Cesta, France. PETAL facility uses chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique. This system needs large pulse compression gratings exhibiting damage threshold of more than 4 J/cm2 in normal beam at 1.053μm and for 500fs pulses. In this paper, we present our recent progress and developments of such pulse compression gratings. We have shown in previous works that the enhancement of the near electric field inside the pillars of the grating drives the damage threshold. This was evidenced from a macroscopic point of view by laser damage testing. We herein demonstrate that damage morphology during damage initiation at the scale of the grating groove is also consistent with this electric field dependence. Some recent grating designs will also be detailed.