Far-field vector-diffraction of off-axis parabolic mirror under oblique incidence

Based on a full vector-diffraction theory, a detailed theoretical study is carried out, aiming at providing a clear insight into the effects of different focusing and off-axis parabola parameters on far-field vector-diffraction properties of an offaxis parabolic mirror in the presence of misalignments of the incoming beam. The physical origin of these effects is also explored. The results show that the far-field intensity profile is altered by the distortion-, coma-, and astigmatism-like aberrations, which are caused by oblique incidence rather than inherent aberrations for the off-axis configuration. The radius of 90% encircled energy also increases but does not change monotonically with incident beam size increasing, or rather,it first decreases and then increases. The focal shift strongly depends on the effective focal length and oblique incidence angle, but it is almost independent of the beam size, which affects the focusing spot patterns. The intensity distribution produces a higher astigmatic image with off-axis angle increasing. Coma-like aberration starts to become dominant with beam size increasing and results in larger curved propagation trajectory. The incident polarization also affects the intensity distribution. The variation in the Strehl ratio with oblique incidence angle strongly depends on the misalignment direction and beam size as well. In addition, we find that the difference in locus between the catacaustic and the diffraction focus in the meridian is small. But the locus of the sagittal foci is obviously different from the locus of the meridian foci and the catacaustic focus. Moreover, the peak intensity of the sagittal focus is maximum, and the ratio of the peak intensity to that in the meridian plane is approximately 1.5. Understanding these effects is valuable for assessing a practical focused intensity and describing the motion of charged particles under a strong electric field in ultraintense laser–matter interaction.

Configuration optimization of off-axis parabolic mirror for enhancing the focusability of a laser beam

We demonstrate a configuration optimization process of an off-axis parabolic mirror to maximize the focused peak intensity based on a precise knowledge of the tight focusing properties by using a full vector-diffraction theory and obtain an optimum configuration scaling rule, which makes it possible to achieve the maximum peak intensity. In addition, we also carry out an assessment analysis of the offset and off-axis angle tolerances corresponding to a 5% drop of the maximum focused peak intensity and present scaling laws for the tolerances of the offset and off-axis angle. Understanding these scaling laws is important to enhance the focusability of a laser beam by an off-axis parabolic mirror in the optimum configuration, in particular, which is valuable for structural design and selection of an off-axis parabolic mirror in ultrashort and ultraintense laser–matter interaction experiments.