Amplifiers for High Repetition Rate Diode-Pumped Ultra-Intense Femtosecond Lasers

The problem being addressed is the development of high intensity ultrashort pulse lasers, in recognition that today’s ultra-high intensity lasers are limited to repetition rates of < 10 Hz. Technical solutions are sought to enable the generation of high energy (joule-level) laser pulses that can be focused to highly relativistic intensity at high repetition rates (100-1000 Hz). The proposed project will leverage kilowatt-average power, high pulse energy, laser technology recently developed by XUV Lasers and Colorado State University to demonstrate the feasibility of an efficient high repetition rate green laser amplifier module to pump high energy Ti:Sapphire (Ti:Sa) amplifiers. A second goal is to show the feasibility of a high average power Ti:Sa amplifier pumped by these modules. These amplifier units will enable the implementation of ultra- intense high repetition laser systems, for example, 100 TW lasers operating at > 250 Hz. The modular character and scalability of the proposed laser technology will also allow for the implementation of laser systems with higher repetition rate and higher pulse energies.The realization and commercialization of high repetition rate ultra-intense laser amplifiers will have transformative potential in both fundamental science and technology. The ability to gather data at high repetition rates can transform the fields of high energy density science and ultra-high filed physics in which experiments are typically limited to a relatively low number of events and poor statistics. High repetition rate lasers will open the possibility of exploring broad parameter spaces and reducing measurement uncertainties. The latter will in turn result in high quality data that can serve to benchmark and improve simulations, helping to distinguish between competing models. The commercial availability of high repetition rate lasers can also help to greatly extend the capability of mid-scale high intensity laser facilities, such as the university facilities that are part the LaserNet US network of high power lasers, recently created by DOE to provide access to ultra- intense lasers to a broad scientific community. The unprecedented combination of ultra-high intensity, high energy, and high repetition rate will also enable the implementation of new technologies such as bright ultrafast x-ray and gamma ray sources and compact electron and ion accelerators, in medicine and materials inspection and modification. The commercialization of the proposed pump laser modules will have by itself important industrial applications such as laser pinning of critical mechanical components.