Laboratory of Thin Film Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
Center of Laboratory of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 19;14(1):3632. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39164-3.
Compressing high-energy laser pulses to a single-cycle and realizing the "λ laser concept", where λ is the wavelength of the laser, will break the current limitation of super-scale projects and contribute to the future 100-petawatt and even Exawatt lasers. Here, we have realized ultra-broadband gold gratings, core optics in the chirped pulse amplification, in the 750-1150 nm spectral range with a > 90% -1 order diffraction efficiency for near single-cycle pulse stretching and compression. The grating is also compatible with azimuthal angles from -15° to 15°, making it possible to design a three-dimensional compressor. In developing and manufacturing processes, a crucial grating profile with large base width and sharp ridge is carefully optimized and controlled to dramatically broaden the high diffraction efficiency bandwidth from the current 100-200 nm to over 400 nm. This work has removed a key obstacle to achieving the near single-cycle 100-PW lasers in the future.
将高能激光脉冲压缩到单个周期，并实现“λ激光概念”，其中 λ 是激光的波长，将打破当前超大规模项目的限制，有助于未来实现 100 拍瓦甚至 1000 拍瓦的激光器。在这里，我们已经实现了超宽带金光栅，这是啁啾脉冲放大中的核心光学元件，在 750-1150nm 的光谱范围内，具有 >90%的-1 阶衍射效率，用于近单周期脉冲拉伸和压缩。该光栅还兼容从-15°到 15°的方位角，使得设计三维压缩机成为可能。在开发和制造过程中，仔细优化和控制具有大基底宽度和锐利脊的关键光栅轮廓，可将高衍射效率带宽从当前的 100-200nm 显著拓宽至 400nm 以上。这项工作为未来实现近单周期 100PW 激光器扫除了一个关键障碍。
