Wave-front control of a large-aperture laser system by use of a static phase corrector.
In large-aperture, ultrahigh-intensity laser systems, such as Vulcan at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, one of the most important factors that determines the ultimate on-target focused intensity is the wave-front quality of the laser pulse. We report on a wave-front analysis carried out on Vulcan to determine the nature and contribution of the aberrations present in the laser pulse that effectively limited the available on-target intensity. We also report on a significant improvement to the wave-front quality that was achieved by static correction of the main aberration, resulting in an increase of focused intensities by a factor of 4.
Hernandez-Gomez
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C
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK. c.hernandez-gomez@rl.ac.uk
Collier
J L
JL
Hawkes
S J
SJ
Danson
C N
CN
Edwards
C B
CB
Pepler
D A
DA
Ross
I N
IN
Winstone
T B
TB