title: Contrast enhancements to petawatt lasers using short pulse optical parametric amplifiers and frequency doubling.
abstract: This paper describes the integration of a short pulse optical parametric amplifier into the chirped pulse amplification beam lines of the Orion laser facility. This enables Orion to generate petawatt laser pulses at 1054 nm with a nanosecond contrast of >10(10). By combining this with frequency-doubling post compression, we can generate 100 J, 500 fs laser pulses with a nanosecond contrast calculated to be ∼10(18).
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Hillier
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elsmere
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Girling
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hopps
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hussey
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Treadwell
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bett