First demonstration of improving laser propagation inside the spherical hohlraums by using the cylindrical laser entrance hole

The octahedral spherical hohlraums have natural superiority in maintaining high radiation symmetry during the entire capsule implosion process in indirect drive inertial confinement fusion.While,in contrast to the cylindrical hohlraums,the narrow space between the laser beams and the spherical hohlraum wall is usually commented.In this Letter,we address this crucial issue and report our experimental work conducted on the SGIII-prototype laser facility which unambiguously demonstrates that a simple design of cylindrical laser entrance hole(LEH)can dramatically improve the laser propagation inside the spherical hohlraums.In addition,the laser beam deflection in the hohlraum is observed for the first time in the experiments.Our 2-dimensional simulation results also verify qualitatively the advantages of the spherical hohlraums with cylindrical LEHs.Our results imply the prospect of adopting the cylindrical LEHs in future spherical ignition hohlraum design.

Adaptive split-step Fourier method for simulating ultrashort laser pulse propagation in photonic crystal fibres

In this paper, the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation （GNLSE） is solved by an adaptive split-step Fourier method （ASSFM）. It is found that ASSFM must be used to solve GNLSE to ensure precision when the soliton selffrequency shift is remarkable and the photonic crystal fibre （PCF） parameters vary with the frequency considerably. The precision of numerical simulation by using ASSFM is higher than that by using split-step Fourier method in the process of laser pulse propagation in PCFs due to the fact that the variation of fibre parameters with the peak frequency in the pulse spectrum can be taken into account fully.

Study on the Two-Dimensional Density Distribution for Gas Plasmas Driven by Laser Pulse

We perform an experimental study of two-dimensional（2D） electron density profiles of the laser-induced plasma plumes in air by ordinarily laboratorial interferometry. The electron density distributions measured show a feature of hollow core. To illustrate the feature, we present a theoretical investigation by using dynamics analysis. In the simulation, the propagation of laser pulse with the evolution of electron density is utilized to evaluate ionization of air target for the plasma-formation stage. In the plasma-expansion stage, a simple adiabatic fluid dynamics is used to calculate the evolution of plasma outward expansion. The simulations show good agreements with experimental results, and demonstrate an effective way of determining 2D density profiles of the laser-induced plasma plume in gas.

Propagation of phase-locked truncated Gaussian beam array in turbulent atmosphere

Truncation manipulation is a simple but effective way to improve the intensity distribution properties of the phase-locked Gaussian beam array at the receiving plane. In this paper, the analytical expression for the propagation of the phase-locked truncated Gaussian beam array in a turbulent atmosphere is obtained based on the extended Huygens--Fresnel principle. Power in the diffraction-limited bucket is introduced as the beam quality factor to evaluate the influence of different truncation parameters. The dependence of optimal truncation ratio on the number of beamlets, the intensity of turbulence, propagation distance and laser wavelength is calculated and discussed. It is revealed that the optimal truncation ratio is larger for the laser array that contains more lasers, and the optimal truncation ratio will shift to a larger value with an increase in propagation distance and decrease in intensity of atmosphere turbulence. The optimal truncation ratio is independent of laser wavelength.

Properties of off-axis hollow Gaussian–Schell model vortex beam propagating in turbulent atmosphere

The analytical expression of off-axis hollow Gaussian–Schell model vortex beam(HGSMVB)generated by anisotropic Gaussian–Schell model source is first introduced.The evolution properties of off-axis HGSMVB propagating in turbulent atmosphere are analyzed.The results show that the off-axis HGSMVB with smaller coherence length or propagating in stronger turbulent atmosphere will evolve from dark hollow beam into Gaussian-like beam with a larger beam spot faster.The beams with different values of integer order N or the position for hollow and vortex factor R will have almost the same Gaussian-like spot distribution at the longer propagation distance.

Propagation of high-power fiber laser with high-order-mode content

Propagation properties of high-power fiber laser with high-order-mode(HOM) content are studied numerically for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The effect of HOM on the propagation property is evaluated by the power in the bucket(PIB) metric. It is shown that PIB is mainly dependent on HOM content rather than the relative phase between the fundamental mode and HOM. The PIB in vacuum is more than 80% when the power fraction of the HOM is controlled to be less than 50% at 5 km. The relative phase has an impact on the peak intensity position and concentration of the far-field intensity distribution. If an adaptive optics system is used to correct the peak intensity deviation, the results indicate that there exists a maximal value of PIB as relative phase increases. Such effect is weakened when propagating in turbulence. Compared to the laser beams without HOM, laser beams with HOM content are less influenced by the turbulence and can reduce average intensity fluctuation. The results may be useful in the design of a high-power fiber laser system.