• High Power Laser Science and Engineering
  • Vol. , Issue , ()
Isono Fumika, van Tilborg Jeroen, Barber Samuel, Natal Joseph, Berger Curtis, Tsai Hai-En, Ostermayr Tobias, Gonsalves Anthony, Geddes C.G.R., Esarey Eric
Author Affiliations
  • University of California Berkeley
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
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    Abstract

    Controlling the delivery of multi-terawatt and petawatt laser pulses to final focus, both in position and angle, is critical to many laser applications such as optical guiding, laser-plasma acceleration, and laser-produced secondary radiation. We present an online, non-destructive laser diagnostic, capable of measuring the transverse position and pointing angle at focus. The diagnostic is based on a unique double-surface-coated wedged-mirror design for the final steering optic in the laser line, producing a witness beam highly correlated with the main beam. By propagating low-power kHz pulses to focus, we observed spectra of focus position and pointing angle fluctuation dominating frequency below 70 Hz. The setup was also used to characterize the excellent position and pointing angle correlation of the 1-Hz high-power laser pulses to this low-power kHz pulse train, opening a promising path to fast non-perturbative feedback concepts even on few-Hz-class high-power laser systems.
    Manuscript Accepted: Feb. 26, 2021
    Posted: Mar. 1, 2021