Intra-cycle depolarization of ultraintense laser pulses focused by off-axis parabolic mirrors

A study of the structure of the electric and magnetic fields of ultraintense laser pulses focused by an off-axis parabolic mirror is reported. At first, a theoretical model is laid out, whose final equations integration allows the space and time structure of the fields to be retrieved. The model is then employed to investigate the field patterns at different times within the optical cycle, for off-axis parabola parameters normally employed in the context of ultraintense laser–plasma interaction experiments. The results show that nontrivial, complex electromagnetic field patterns are observed at the time at which the electric and magnetic fields are supposed to vanish. The importance of this effect is then studied for different laser polarizations, f numbers and off-axis angles.

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.

Design of fiber-optic collector for spectrometer based on curved mirror

To enlarge the detection range of traditional fiber-optic spectrometer,two rotating parabolic mirrors were first used in the design of fiber-optic collector for spectrometer,which can extend the detection range of spectrometer from centimeter-scale to50m,as a super-low altitude remote sensing detector under passive lighting conditions.According to the performance requirements of fiber-spectrometer for optical collector,this study deduced the calculation formulae of design size of parabolic optical collector applied to different sensitivity spectrometers,different detection targets,different detection ranges and different weathers.Based on the calculation results,the model of fiber-optic collector with a diameter of16mm and a height of7.8mm was designed by ZEMAX.And then,TracePro,a light simulation software,was applied to ray tracing.The simulation results of optical radiation magnification agrees well with theoretical value,and the relative error is less than0.78%.This optical collector can effectively extend the detection range of spectrometer and expand its application fields and scopes.Compared with traditional refractive optical collector,it has several advantages of compact structure,low weight and low cost.

Focusing of Intense Laser via Parabolic Plasma Concave Surface

Since laser intensity plays an important role in laser plasma interactions,a method of increasing laser intensity- focusing of an intense laser via a parabolic plasma concave surface- is proposed and investigated by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.The geometric focusing via a parabolic concave surface and the temporal compression of high harmonics increased the peak intensity of the laser pulse by about two orders of magnitude.Compared with the improvement via laser optics approaches,this scheme is much more economic and appropriate for most femtosecond laser facilities.

A Full Aperture Backscattering Light Diagnostic System Installed on the Shenguang-III Prototype Laser Facility

A full aperture backscattering light diagnostic system （FABLDS） implemented on the Shen Guang-Ⅲ Prototype Laser Facility is described in the paper. FABLDS measures both stimulated brillouin scattering （SBS） and stimulated Raman scattering （SRS） with a series of optical detectors. Energy sensors record the integrated energy, and streak cameras coupled with spectrometers measure the temporal spectrum of the backscattering light. This paper provides an overview of the FABLDS and detailed descriptions of the optical path. Special components, including off-axis parabolic mirror, spatial filter and optical light filters, are incorporated along the beam path for purifying the scattering light. Several hohlraum targets were employed, including C5H12 gas-filled targets and empty targets in the experiments. Results presented in the paper indicate that the fraction of backscatter light has been obviously shrinked when the laser is smoothed by continuous phase plates （CPP）.