Speaker
Description
Petawatt peak-power laser systems, like HPLS at ELI-NP, could be obtained in the past few years using the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique - which was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018. CPA implies stretching and compressing the pulse duration by introducing controlled space-time coupling (STC) in the laser field. Non-perfect compensation along with dispersive optical elements cause residual STC at the output of the laser chain. We present STC signatures in the near-field and at focus of the laser field, as simulated with a home-made propagation code. Furthermore, we compare the simulations with experimental measurements of laser pulses with controlled STC. Finally, we show the STC optimization method at HPLS and the consequent improvement of the focus quality.
