Abstract

The combination of ultrashort pulse generation and chirped pulse amplification (CPA) techniques has been the driving force in the development of laser systems with peak powers at the terawatt level [1-6]. Most high power systems developed to date, work in a spectral region between 0.8 and 1.1 microns, and TW-class lasers have been demonstrated in Ti:Sapphire, Nd:glass and Cr:LISAF based systems. A known alternative is offered by excimer lasers. Efforts in this direction have been undertaken by a number of groups [7-9].

© 1997 Optical Society of America