title: Generation of 160-ps terawatt-power CO(2) laser pulses.
abstract: We have developed a three-stage CO(2) master-oscillator-amplifier system that produces 1.1 TW of peak power. The system generates 170 J of energy in a diffraction-limited 160+/-10ps pulse on the 10P(20) line. We also report the realization of a two-wavelength terawatt-peak-power CO(2) laser that can be tuned to an arbitrary pair of lines. A two-stage semiconductor switching system driven by a picosecond-pulse Nd:YAG laser was used to slice a short, low-power 10.6-mum pulse for amplification. A simple plasma shutter helped to compensate for gain narrowing in a final three-pass amplifier and to shorten the pulse.
authors: S Y
authors: SY
authors: Tochitsky
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Narang
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Filip
authors: C E
authors: CE
authors: Clayton
authors: K A
authors: KA
authors: Marsh
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Joshi