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AO inside laser chain

AO inside laser chain
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Adaptive optics inside the amplification chain and the next generation of optical fuses High-power lasers at the forefront of technology, once considered to be purely research tools, are beginning to show their potential applications in a wide variety of scientific and industrial applications. These new applications include defense, fusion power generation, medical treatments based on proton therapy and the x-ray imaging. Many research projects, originally performed purely to expand our understanding of the universe we live in, have unexpectedly lead to many of the technologies that have become part of our daily lives. Today’s economy requires that both scientific and industrial researchers engage in projects with foreseeable commercial, or at the very least “prestige earning,” applications. In the case of high-power lasers, the scientists and engineers that are developing the applications of this new generation of lasers must work quickly and efficiently to prove the value and feasibility of their work, Using adaptive optics in creative new fashions will contribute to this objective.

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Currently, adaptive optics is only used in high-power lasers after amplification in order to improve final focal spot (see figure 1). While this approach has proved its utility and imposes few constraints, aberrations accumulate successively during beam amplification. Limiting the use of wavefront shaping technologies to the end of the chain has important drawbacks, the most evident of which is the inherent loss of intensity caused by the buildup of aberrations. More importantly, using adaptive optics exclusively at the end of the chain means that users are not taking advantage of the...

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Below is a schematic of a typical deployment that demonstrates how integrating an adaptive optics loop using a HASO 32 wavefront sensor, a deformable mirror and CASAO software, in order to correct the beam’s wavefront errors. After exiting the first multipass amplifier in a 10nm, 600ps stretched pulse laser, the wavefront is analyzed and aberrations are corrected before the beam enters into the second amplifier and the final compressor is configured. Below, image A shows the beam’s uncorrected near-field focal spot and intensity profile at the exit point of the first amplifier. Image B...

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The images below show how, in our test, correcting the beam’s spatial profile between the first and second amplifiers in the chain provides a homogeneous dispersion of intensity that provides two measurable advantages. First (upper images), using adaptive optics reduces the risk to sensitive beam amplification elements by eliminating the generation of unexpected hotspots. Second (lower images), the same system improves the planeness of the beam’s wavefront and augments the beam’s intensity by at least 10%. Overcoming the barriers of past that impeded the deployment of adaptive optics inside...

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The adaptive optics optical fuse for high-power lasers In autumn 2007, Imagine Optic filed a patent for a revolutionary optical fuse for high-power lasers. This new technology differentiates itself by incorporating the company’s unique expertise in adaptive optics with lowcost consumables (specifically, the fuse element that is consumed when a problem appears). For the first time, high-power laser installations have a reliable, cost-effective means of protecting sensitive equipment. The base principal of this new technology is simple and composed of two elements – a dielectric conical...

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