Extreme Light for Cooking Course by Daniel Ursescu

The course will have 7 lectures of 2 hours each. It will start in the week 19-23.02, and will be every Tuesday, in the interval 15:00 - 17:00. 

Short explanation of the three topics to be addressed: 

1. First topic covers the questions: what does ELI-NP deliver to the users? How do we describe the light? How can we model the light from ultrashort lasers?
2. The second topic provides the insight on The Machine: Which are the parts, how are they connected and what light can It deliver? Trying to find out what does it happen to the delivered light when The Machine goes wrong.
3. The third topic addresses the measurement and control of the delivered light from The Machine. You need  to keep an (artificial) eye on that laser light (and a hand...), but how does it function the eye (and the hand)?

Contents:

1. Electromagnetic field and optics 
   1. Maxwell's equations 
      With total charge - essential for the description of laser fields and particle acceleration 
      With free charge – the basis of non-linear effects 
   2. Wave equation – laser radiation 
      Paraxial approximation 
      Gaussian beams / pulses
   3.  Rays
      ABCD matrix formalism
      Spatio-temporal couplings
   4. Types of calculations:
      Ray tracing: Optica3, Zemax 
      Study of pulse temporal evolution: Lab2 
      Beam propagation studies: Miro 
      Finite element time-domain (FDTD): Rsoft 
      Other approaches: analytical, Fourier transform, Gausslet decomposition
       
2. Laser systems for extreme light 
   1. Laser emission: active medium, pumping, population inversion, cavity, extraction
       Properties of laser radiation 
      Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) Architecture
   2. Narrowband oscillators: fiber based 
      Broadband oscillators: TiSa and the optical Kerr effect 
      Ultra-wideband oscillators and phase stabilization under the temporal envelope
   3. Diffractive elements, chirped mirrors and dispersion in materials 
      Stretchers and compressors 
      What is the phase? Taylor series development
      Material dispersion and self phase modulation
   4. Types of laser amplifiers
      Small signal amplification and saturation
      Band narrowing and red-shift 
      Pumping systems 
3. Extreme light control
   1. Pulse duration measurements 
      Temporal contrast measurements 
      Wavefront tilt / Spatio-temporal measurements
      Measurements in the focus
   2.  Details: Pointing Stabilization 
      Spatial filtering 
      Adaptive Optics Correction systems 
      Spectral shaping and phase control 
      Temporal and spectral pulse shaping 
      Intensity and polarization control 
      Contrast enhancement: XPW and saturable absorbers 
      Coherent combination