Multistep pulse compressor based on single-pass single-grating-pair main compressor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified multistage pulse compressor using a single-pass, single-grating-pair main compressor that achieves high efficiency and beam smoothing for petawatt laser pulses, reducing complexity compared to traditional four-grating systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel multistep pulse compression scheme based on a single grating pair, enhancing efficiency and beam quality while simplifying the compressor design.

Findings

Achieves comparable spectral dispersion with fewer gratings.

Provides effective beam smoothing through spatial dispersion.

Maintains high compression efficiency despite reduced gratings.

Abstract

A multistage smoothing multistep pulse compressor (MPC) based on a single-pass single-grating-pair (SSGP) main compressor is proposed to simplify the entire petawatt (PW) compressor. Only one grating pair with relatively long distance is used to generate the same amount of spectral dispersion in the main compressor compared with a four-grating main compressor. As the SSGP induces the largest spatial dispersion, it can introduce the best beam-smoothing effect to the laser beam on the last grating. When considering the diffraction loss of only two gratings, the total compression efficiency of the SSGP main compressor is even larger than that of a four-grating main compressor. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal aberration induced by single-grating-pair can be compensated effectively by using deformable mirrors, however it is difficult or complicated to be well compensated in a four-grating compressor. Approximately 50-100 PW laser pulses can be obtained using this SSGP-based multistage smoothing MPC with a single laser beam