title: 10(-10) temporal contrast for femtosecond ultraintense lasers by cross-polarized wave generation.
abstract: We take advantage of nonlinear properties associated with chi(3) tensor elements in BaF2 cubic crystal to improve the temporal contrast of femtosecond laser pulses. The technique presented is based on cross-polarized wave (XPW) generation. We have obtained a transmission efficiency of 10% and 10(-10) contrast with an input pulse in the millijoule range. This filter does not affect the spectral shape or the phase of the cleaned pulse. It also acts as an efficient spatial filter. In this method the contrast enhancement is limited only by the extinction ratio of the polarization discrimination device.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées, Ecole Polytechnique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 91761 Palaiseau Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jullien
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Burgy
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hamoniaux
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Chambaret
authors.forename: Frédérika
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Augé-Rochereau
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chériaux
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Etchepare
authors.forename: Nikolay
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Minkovski
authors.forename: Solomon M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Saltiel