The OPCPA-based high energy 1 kHz laser system, operating at 820 nm provides exceptionally good contrast 15 fs pulses for a variety of user experiments at ELI Beamlines. The system is gradually upgraded to meet the demand of high energy high average power ultrashort pulse sources for the research in fields of HHG, X-ray generation and wake-field electron acceleration. The current parameters of the system are presented together a glimpse on recently performed state-of-the-art experiments.

We report on the progress on developing a high energy, 1030 nm, 1 kHz, picosecond thin-disk multipass amplifier. Combining thin-disk technology with an imaging setup allows for reliable operation with good beam quality. We address the key challenges of beam-distortion by the disk and gain clamping due to parasitic lasing.

We report on the progress on developing a high energy, 1030 nm, 1 kHz, picosecond thin-disk multipass amplifier. Combining thin-disk technology with an imaging setup allows for reliable operation with good beam quality. We address the key challenges of beam-distortion by the disk and gain clamping due to parasitic lasing and how to overcome these.

We report on the performance improvements of the L1 Allegra laser system. The pump laser upgrade with the thin-disk multipass amplifier allows for the energy ramp-up, while a newly developed synchronized auxiliary laser system provides the capability of the pump-probe experiments at arbitrary delays.

Vacuum chambers are frequently used in high-energy, high-peak-power laser systems to prevent deleterious nonlinear effects, which can result from propagation in air. In the vacuum sections of the Allegra laser system at ELI-Beamlines, we observed degradation of several optical elements due to laser-induced contamination (LIC). This contamination is present on surfaces with laser intensity above 30 G W / c m 2 with wavelengths of 515, 800, and 1030 nm. It can lead to undesired absorption on diffraction gratings, mirrors, and crystals and ultimately to degradation of the laser beam profile. Because the Allegra laser is intended to be a high-uptime source for users, such progressive degradation is unacceptable for operation. Here, we evaluate three methods of removing LIC from optics in vacuum. One of them, the radio-frequency-generated plasma cleaning, appears to be a suitable solution from the perspective of operating a reliable, on-demand source for users.

The L1 Allegra is an OPCPA-based, high average power, high repetition rate laser system pumped by thin-disc based regenerative amplifiers currently under development at the ELI-Beamlines center in Czech Republic. The repetition rate is 1 kHz, pulse duration is below 15 fs and the wavelength centered around 820 nm with a maximum design pulse energy of 100 mJ. To avoid problems with self-focusing, a large portion of the system was placed inside vacuum, including the compressors and second-harmonic crystals for the last three 1030 nm pump lasers, the final three OPA stages, and the chirped mirror compressor. In order to reach the designed output energy of the whole system, the pump lasers need to be efficient, stable, and providing enough pump power for each of the amplification stages. Pulse compression of the final three pump lasers as well as efficient conversion to the second harmonic frequency in vacuum has posed several challenges and we report on their solutions and results. The vacuum environment causes difficulties for two main reasons. The first one is laser-induced-contamination (LIC) degrading the optical surfaces of dielectric gratings, mirrors and crystals, due to the presence of degassing components contaminating the vacuum chambers. The second reason is second-harmonic generation crystal mounts heating up, requiring regular phase matching corrections by rotation of the crystal mounts. The LIC problem was solved by regular cleaning of the chambers by means of an RF-plasma source, and the heating problem was solved by implementing active temperature stabilization by means of installing thermo-electric coolers on the crystal holders. To increase the efficiency of the second-harmonic generation, beam profiles of the pump lasers had to be improved. The original Faraday rotators, present in the linearly-designed regenerative amplifiers, caused non-Gaussian beam profiles due to the self focusing inside the rotators. By using KTF crystals inside a new type of rotators, the spatial profile of the pump lasers is more Gaussian, allowing the efficiency of the SHG to be higher, almost by 25%. All the solved problems recently allowed the system to reach a short pulse output energy of 56 mJ, paving a way to reach 100 mJ successfuly in the future.

We report on a 1 kHz, 515 nm laser system, based on a commercially available 230 W average power Yb:YAG thin-disk regenerative amplifier, developed for pumping one of the last optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) stages of the Allegra laser system at ELI Beamlines. To avoid problems with self-focusing of picosecond pulses, the 1030 nm output pulses are compressed and frequency doubled with an LBO crystal in vacuum. Additionally, development of a thermal management system was needed to ensure stable phase matching conditions at high average power. The resulting 515 nm pulses have an energy of more than 120 mJ with SHG efficiency of 60% and an average RMS stability of 1.1% for more than 8 h.

Allegra laser system is one of the main laser sources of the ELI-Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic. The system is designed to operate at 1 kHz and >100 mJ output with the pulse duration of <15 fs at 820 nm central wavelength. The main role of the laser system includes driving plasma X-ray and high harmonic (HHG) secondary sources at ELI-Beamlines facility. In this submission we present the most recent results on the optimization of high-energy OPCPA amplification stages and discuss the operational performance of the laser system.

We report on the current state of readiness of the 1 kHz, 15 fs L1 ALLEGRA laser system for long term reliable operation driving user experiments based on HHG. The highly automated system, based on short pulse OPCPA, currently generates pulses with energy of 30 mJ at central wavelength of 820 nm.

Get PDF Email Share Share with Facebook Tweet This Post on reddit Share with LinkedIn Add to CiteULike Add to Mendeley Add to BibSonomy Get Citation Copy Citation Text Z. Hubka, R. Boge, F. Batysta, R. Antipenkov, J. Novak, M. Greco, E. Erdman, A. Spacek, L. Indra, K. Majer, J. T. Green, J. A. Naylon, P. Bakule, and B. Rus, "High energy, high average power, nonlinear frequency conversion and parametric amplification of picosecond pulses in vacuum," in Nonlinear Optics (NLO), OSA Technical Digest (Optica Publishing Group, 2019), paper NTh2B.7. Export Citation BibTex Endnote (RIS) HTML Plain Text Citation alert Save article

We report on the status of the Allegra laser beamline currently being commissioned at the ELI-Beamlines facility. The beamline will be used to drive X-ray sources for research in material science, molecular physics, and biophysics, where a high repetition rate is essential. Designed for user operation, significant attention is given to stability, reliability, and automation of the system. A photo of the beamline is shown in Fig. 1(a).

Get PDF Email Share Share with Facebook Tweet This Post on reddit Share with LinkedIn Add to CiteULike Add to Mendeley Add to BibSonomy Get Citation Copy Citation Text R. Antipenkov, F. Batysta, R. Boge, E. Erdman, M. Greco, J. T. Green, Z. Hubka, L. Indra, K. Majer, T. Mazanec, P. Mazůrek, J. Naylon, J. Novák, V. Šobr, A. Špaček, M. Torun, B. Tykalewicz, P. Bakule, and B. Rus, "The Current Commissioning Results of the Allegra Kilohertz High-Energy Laser System at ELI-Beamlines," in Laser Congress 2019 (ASSL, LAC, LS&C), OSA Technical Digest (Optica Publishing Group, 2019), paper ATh1A.6. Export Citation BibTex Endnote (RIS) HTML Plain Text Citation alert Save article

The Allegra femtosecond laser system is the main driver for high harmonic and plasma x-ray secondary sources at ELI-Beamlines operating at a 1 kHz rep rate. The system is based on OPCPA technology and consists of seven amplification stages pumped by thin-disk picosecond lasers. It is designed to reach 30 mJ output in the first phase of operation and to be ramped up to 50 mJ by engaging an additional pump laser. The amplified pulse is compressed to sub-20fs by an array of chirped mirrors and higher order dispersion is pre-compensated for by a Dazzler AOPDF in the front-end. In this paper we present the overview of Allegra system and the current status of deployment with a special focus on the high average power OPCPA in vacuum.

For most extreme light applications, a reliable and stable driver laser is crucial to successful experiments. As lasers grow in energy and peak power they become increasingly complex and more failure modes are introduced to the system as a whole. For this reason it is prudent to develop a laser with simplicity, repeatability, and durability in mind. With the wide commercial availability of high quality, inexpensive fiber components, much of the required pulse conditioning for seeding high energy laser systems can take place entirely in fiber. This allows for much of the laser front end to be compact, alignment-free, and computer controlled with potentially dramatic savings in cost and space on the optical table. Here we explore some of the current trends in fiber-based front ends for high peak power laser systems. The requirements for any given high peak power laser are always quite different and fiber front ends are enormously customizable, so here we present two basic versions of fiber front ends which are used at the ELI-Beamlines facility which resemble other common fiber front end architectures.

A robust and simple method is presented for ensuring constant energy and pointing of a high average power solid state laser on a target. In addition to providing long-term stability, this scheme also eliminates any drifts in energy or pointing resulting from the initial warm-up after a cold start. This is achieved using two separate feedback loops: one loop stabilizes the pointing of the beam external to the amplifier cavity and the other locks the cavity mode to have optimum overlap with the pump spot on the active medium. The key idea of the cavity mode stabilization is to monitor the overlap of the cavity mode and the gain medium with a camera and control it with an actively controlled, intra-cavity mirror. While this method is demonstrated on a thin-disk regenerative amplifier, it can also be applied to a wide variety of solid state laser amplifiers.

We report on the design and performance of a fiber-based, multi-channel laser amplifier seed pulse distribution system. The device is designed to condition and distribute low energy laser pulses from a mode-locked oscillator to multiple, highly synchronized, high energy amplifiers integrated into a laser beamline. Critical functions such as temporal pulse stretching well beyond 100 ps/nm, pulse picking, and fine control over the pulse delay up to 300 ps are all performed in fiber eliminating the need for bulky and expensive grating stretchers, Pockels cells, and delay lines. These functions are characterized and the system as a whole is demonstrated by seeding two high energy amplifiers in the laser beamline. The design of this system allows for complete computer control of all functions, including tuning of dispersion, and is entirely hands-free. The performance of this device and its subsystems will be relevant to those developing lasers where reliability, size, and cost are key concerns in addition to performance; this includes those developing large-scale laser systems similar to ours and also those developing table-top experiments and commercial systems.

We present an active cavity pointing stabilization system based on a novel method that tracks the cavity mode position directly on the thin disk gain medium itself. Here, the overlap of the lasing cavity with the pump, visible as a depletion within the pumped area, is most crucial to the stability of the laser. Short term stability as well as long term stability are significantly increased enabling day long operation, directly from a cold start of the laser system, without the need for thermalization and manual alignment.

We present a stable supercontinuum (SC) generated in a bulk YAG crystal, pumped by 3 ps chirped pulses at 1030 nm. The SC is generated in a loose focus geometry in a 13 cm long YAG crystal, allowing for stable and robust single-filament generation. The SC energy stability exceeds that of the pump laser by almost a factor of 3. Additionally, we show that the SC spectrum has long-term stability and that the SC is coherent and compressible by compressing the portions of SC spectra close to the corresponding Fourier limit. This makes the picosecond-pulse-driven SC a suitable stable seed for OPCPA amplifiers. (C)2017 Optical Society of America

We report on the status of the high repetition rate, high energy, L1 laser beamline at the ELI-Beamlines facility. The beamline is based on picosecond optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) of pulses from a mode-locked Ti:Sapphire oscillator and has a target energy/repetition rate of 100 mJ/1 kHz with < 15fs pulse duration. The OPCPA pump lasers use thin disk technology to achieve the high energy and average power required to pump such a high energy, high repetition rate broadband amplifier. Here we report on the progress in beamline development and discuss the technical challenges involved in producing such a system and their solutions. A major focus of the laser development is reliable, robust operation and long term stability; mechanical, optical, and control system architecture design considerations to achieve our goals of long term stability are discussed.

We report on a frequency-doubled picosecond Yb:YAG thin disk regenerative amplifier, developed as a pump laser for a kilohertz repetition rate OPCPA. At a repetition rate of 1 kHz, the compressed output of the regenerative amplifier has a pulse duration of 1.2 ps and pulse energy of 90 mJ with energy stability of σ < 0.8% and M2 < 1.2. The pulses are frequency doubled in an LBO crystal yielding 42 mJ at 515 nm.