title: Commissioning of a frequency-resolved optical gating system at the OMEGA EP laser facility: SpecFROG.
abstract: We present the design and commissioning of a new single-shot, frequency-resolved optical gating system on the OMEGA EP laser facility - dubbed "SpecFROG" - for characterizing the instantaneous intensity and phase of ∼10 ps pulses used to study ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions. A polarization-gating geometry is employed to ensure tha the diagnostic is broadband and has unambiguous time directionality. SpecFROG is capable of characterizing ∼10 s of mJ pulses with durations between 0.5-25 ps with ≲285 fs geometrical temporal blurring and ∼0.1% spectral shift resolutions over an adjustable total spectral shifting window of ∼15% of the carrier wavelength λo; configurations currently exist for both the fundamental (1ω, λo = 1.054 μm) and second harmonic (2ω, λo = 0.527 μm) of the EP pulse. Initial specular reflectivity measurements of the ∼1 kJ, ∼10 ps OMEGA EP laser off solid density aluminum targets suggest drastically different scalings for specular pulse properties compared to picosecond-scale pulses of comparable intensities.
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Link
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ping
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ayers
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Patel