Ultrahigh-Intensity lasers have proven to be indispensable tools in plasma physics for a wide range of experiments. However, as properties of the focal spot govern the laser-plasma interaction, fluctuations in the on-shot wavefront reduce the repeatability of experimental results and therefore limit the value of the findings. Compensating for these fluctuations in single-shot laser systems remains challenging up to this day, partly due to the necessity to do so after the pulse compression stage to avoid generating spatio-temporal couplings in the compressor.
An effort to improve this situation at PHELIX was the setup of a full post-compressor adaptive optics system. Facing the challenges of large peak intensities and tight space constraints we implemented an ultra-compact, post-compressor beam diagnostic close to the target chamber to both compensate the aberrations prior to the shot using a mechanical deformable mirror and measure the on-shot wavefront for verification. In conjunction with an in-house developed calibration routine, we achieved intensities in excess of 10
Zoom-Meeting
https://gsi-fair.zoom.us/j/96629963798
Meeting-ID: 966 2996 3798
Kenncode: 130302
Olga Rosmej