Abstract

The increasing peak power of laser chains based on the Chirped Pulse Amplification leads to the use of a compressor or a part of the compressor under vacuum [1,2] in order to avoid the non-linear effect when the pulse has been fully recompressed. We propose an alternative solution that is to replace the compressor under vacuum by a compressor in the air combined with a set of chirped mirrors that is under vacuum. The "air-compressor" will be aligned such that the residual spectral phase after the chirped mirror's set will be minimized in order to obtain the optimal pulse duration. This scheme allows the pulse duration to be in the range of 1 ps at the exit of the grating compressor and then the B-integral to be less than 0.5 after a propagation of one meter in the air for a peak power of TW. Such an hybrid compressor can be easily used in terawatt-level CPA lasers in order to avoid a compressor under vacuum.

© 2000 IEEE