Picosecond laser damage performance assessment of multilayer dielectric gratings in vacuum

• DOI: 10.1364/oe.23.015532
• Publication Date: 2015-06-04T16:02:20Z
• Authors: David A. Alessi; C. Wren Carr; Richard P. Hackel; Raluca A. Negres; Kenneth Stanion; James E. Fair; David A. Cross; James Nissen; Ronald Luthi; Gabe Guss; Jerald A. Britten; William H. Gourdin; Constantin Haefner
• Keywords: Raster scan; Picosecond; Pulse compression; Diffraction efficiency

Precise assessment of the high fluence performance pulse compressor gratings is necessary to determine safe operational limits short-pulse energy lasers. We have measured picosecond laser damage behavior multilayer dielectric (MLD) diffraction used in compression chirped pulses on Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) kilojoule petawatt system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). present optical density measurements MLD using raster scan method order estimate performance. also report results R-on-1 tests performed with varying duration (1-30 ps) air, and clean vacuum. Measurements were vacuum controlled exposure organic contamination simulate grating use environment. Results show sparse defects lower resistance which not detected by small-area test methods.