Development of a 100 J, 10 Hz laser for compression experiments at the High Energy Density instrument at the European XFEL

Development of a 100 J, 10 Hz laser for compression experiments at the High Energy Density instrument at the European XFEL

In this paper we review the design and development of a 100 J, 10 Hz nanosecond pulsed laser, codenamed DiPOLE100X, being built at the Central Laser Facility (CLF). This 1 kW average power diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is based on a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) design, which includes two cryogenic gas cooled amplifier stages based on DiPOLE multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology developed at the CLF. The laser will produce pulses between 2 and 15 ns in duration with precise, arbitrarily selectable shapes, at pulse repetition rates up to 10 Hz, allowing real-time shape optimization for compression experiments. Once completed, the laser will be delivered to the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility in Germany as a UK-funded contribution in kind, where it will be used to study extreme states of matter at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument.

在本文中，我们回顾了一台100焦耳、10赫兹纳秒脉冲激光器的设计与研发情况，其代号为DiPOLE100X，正在中央激光设施（CLF）建造。这台平均功率为1千瓦的二极管泵浦固态激光器（DPSSL）基于主振荡器功率放大器（MOPA）设计，其中包括两个基于CLF所研发的DiPOLE多板条陶瓷Yb:YAG放大器技术的低温气体冷却放大级。该激光器将产生持续时间在2到15纳秒之间、具有精确且可任意选择形状的脉冲，脉冲重复频率高达10赫兹，从而能够为压缩实验进行实时的形状优化。一旦建成，这台激光器将作为英国资助的实物贡献被交付至德国的欧洲X射线自由电子激光（XFEL）设施，在那里它将被用于在高能量密度（HED）仪器上研究物质的极端状态。