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The strong-coupling mode, called the “quasimode”, is excited by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions. Also SBS of the quasimode competes with SBS of the fast mode (or slow mode) in multi-ion species plasmas, thus leading to a low-frequency burst behavior of SBS reflectivity. Competition between the quasimode and the ion-acoustic wave (IAW) is an important saturation mechanism of SBS in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions. These results give a clear explanation of the low-frequency periodic burst behavior of SBS and should be considered as a saturation mechanism of SBS in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions.

We incorporate deep learning (DL) into tiled aperture coherent beam combining (CBC) systems for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. By using a well-trained convolutional neural network DL model, which has been constructed at a non-focal-plane to avoid the data collision problem, the relative phase of each beamlet could be accurately estimated, and then the phase error in the CBC system could be compensated directly by a servo phase control system. The feasibility and extensibility of the phase control method have been demonstrated by simulating the coherent combining of different hexagonal arrays. This DL-based phase control method offers a new way of eliminating dynamic phase noise in tiled aperture CBC systems, and it could provide a valuable reference on alleviating the long-standing problem that the phase control bandwidth decreases as the number of array elements increases.

We present a scintillator-based detector able to measure the proton energy and the spatial distribution with a relatively simple design. It has been designed and built at the Spanish Center for Pulsed Lasers (CLPU) in Salamanca and tested in the proton accelerator at the Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales (CMAM) in Madrid. The detector is capable of being set in the high repetition rate (HRR) mode and reproduces the performance of the radiochromic film detector. It represents a new class of online detectors for laser–plasma physics experiments in the newly emerging high power laser laboratories working at HRR.

High-power femtosecond lasers beyond $5~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ are attractive for strong-field physics with mid-infrared (IR) fields but are difficult to scale up. In optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) at mid-IR wavelengths, a nonlinear crystal is vital, and its transmittance, dispersion, nonlinear coefficient and size determine the achievable power and wavelength. OPCPA beyond $5~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ routinely relies on semiconductor crystals because common oxide crystals are not transparent in this spectral range. However, the small size and low damage threshold of semiconductor crystals fundamentally limit the peak power to gigawatts. In this paper, we design a terawatt-class OPCPA system at $5.2~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ based on a new kind of oxide crystal of $\text{La}_{3}\text{Ga}_{5.5}\text{Nb}_{0.5}\text{O}_{14}$ (LGN). The extended transparent range, high damage threshold, superior phase-matching characteristics and large size of LGN enable the generation of 0.13 TW seven-cycle pulses at $5.2~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$. This design fully relies on the state-of-the-art OPCPA technology of an octave-spanning ultrafast Ti:sapphire laser and a thin-disk Yb:YAG laser, offering the performance characteristics of high power, a high repetition rate and a stable carrier–envelope phase.

We propose and demonstrate the use of random phase plates (RPPs) for high-energy sub-picosecond lasers. Contrarily to previous work related to nanosecond lasers, an RPP poses technical challenges with ultrashort-pulse lasers. Here, we implement the RPP near the beginning of the amplifier and image-relay it throughout the laser amplifier. With this, we obtain a uniform intensity distribution in the focus over an area 1600 times the diffraction limit. This method shows no significant drawbacks for the laser and it has been implemented at the PHELIX laser facility where it is now available for users.

Direct-drive laser fusion has one potential advantage over all other approaches to fusion energy. The hot plasma can be kept near or below the various plasma instability thresholds, if one uses purely spherical targets, with a short wavelength, large bandwidth and optically smoothed excimer laser. Instead of trying to manage laser–plasma instabilities, one avoids them. There is a path to complete the evaluation and development of this energy option, with moderate costs and a moderate time scale. Glass lasers, with their longer wavelength and narrower bandwidth, are no longer useful to evaluate fusion targets.

We report on the study of single-mode fiber-laser-pumped mode-locked Yb:CALYO lasers via using a passive saturable absorber and Kerr-lens mode-locking technique, respectively. Up to 3.1-W average power with 103-fs pulse duration is obtained from the passive mode-locking, and down to 36-fs pulse duration with more than 2-W average power is achieved by the pure Kerr-lens mode-locking, which is to the best of our knowledge, the highest average power from a reported sub-40-fs Yb-based solid-state oscillator.

We report on the investigation of intermode beating mode-locked (IBML) pulse generation in a simple all-fiber Tm$^{3+}$-doped double clad fiber laser (TDFL). This IBML TDFL is implemented by matching longitudinal-mode frequency between 793 nm laser and TDFL without extra mode locker. The central wavelength of ${\sim}1983~\text{nm}$, the fundamental pulse frequency of ${\sim}9.6~\text{MHz}$ and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of ${>}50~\text{dB}$ are achieved in this IBML TDFL. With laser cavity optimization, the IBML TDFL can finally generate an average output power of 1.03 W with corresponding pulse energy of ${\sim}107~\text{nJ}$. These results can provide an easily accessible way to develop compact large-energy, high-power TDFLs.

A number of vision-based methods for detecting laser-induced defects on optical components have been implemented to replace the time-consuming manual inspection. While deep-learning-based methods have achieved state-of-the-art performances in many visual recognition tasks, their success often hinges on the availability of a large number of labeled training sets. In this paper, we propose a surface defect detection method based on image segmentation with a U-shaped convolutional network (U-Net). The designed network was trained on paired sets of online and offline images of optics from a large laser facility. We show in our experimental evaluation that our approach can accurately locate laser-induced defects on the optics in real time. The main advantage of the proposed method is that the network can be trained end to end on small samples, without the requirement for manual labeling or manual feature extraction. The approach can be applied to the daily inspection and maintenance of optical components in large laser facilities.

We report on a new scheme for efficient continuous-wave (CW) mid-infrared generation using difference frequency generation (DFG) inside a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN)-based optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The pump sources were two CW fiber lasers fixed at 1018 nm and 1080 nm. One worked as the assisted laser to build parametric oscillation and generate an oscillating signal beam while the other worked at low power (${\leqslant}3~\text{W}$) to induce DFG between it and the signal beam. The PPLN temperature was appropriately adjusted to enable OPO and DFG to synchronously meet phase-matching conditions. Finally, both low-power 1018 nm and 1080 nm pump beams were successfully converted to $3.1~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ and $3.7~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ idler beams, respectively. The conversion efficiencies of the 1018 nm and 1080 nm pumped DFG reached 20% and 15%, respectively, while their slope efficiencies reached 19.6% and 15%. All these data were comparable to the OPOs pumped by themselves and never realized before in traditional CW DFG schemes. The results reveal that high-efficiency frequency down-conversion can be achieved with a low-power near-infrared pump source.