The objective of maintaining the cleanliness of the multi-segment disk amplifier in Shenguang-II (SG-II) is to reduce laser-induced damage for optics. The flow field of clean gas, which is used for the transportation of contaminan

Faraday effect measurements of holmium oxide (Ho2O3) ceramics-based magneto-optical materials, highly potential material candidates for high-energy laser Faraday isolators, are presented in this paper. Temperature dependence of th

A new crystal spectrometer for application in X-ray opacity experiments is proposed. The conditions necessary to yield broad spectral coverage with a resolution ${>}$500, strong rejection of hard X-ray backgrounds and negligible s

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) [Dubietis et al., Opt. Commun. 88, 437 (1992)] implemented by multikilojoule Nd:glass pump lasers is a promising approach to produce ultraintense pulses (${>}10^{23}~\text{W}/

A multichannel calorimeter system is designed and constructed which is capable of delivering single-shot and broad-band spectral measurement of terahertz (THz) radiation generated in intense laser–plasma interactions. The ge

A high-power, Joule-class, nanosecond temporally shaped multi-pass ring laser amplifier system with two neodymium-doped phosphate glass (Nd:glass) laser heads is demonstrated. The laser amplifier system consists of three parts: an

In order to improve the damage threshold and enlarge the aperture of a laser beam shaper, photolithographic patterning technology is adopted to design a new type of liquid crystal binary mask. The inherent conductive metal layer o

A new generation of high power laser facilities will provide laser pulses with extremely high powers of 10 petawatt (PW) and even 100 PW, capable of reaching intensities of $10^{23}~\text{W}/\text{cm}^{2}$ in the laser focus. Thes

Filamentary structures can form within the beam of protons accelerated during the interaction of an intense laser pulse with an ultrathin foil target. Such behaviour is shown to be dependent upon the formation time of quasi-static

High-brightness fiber laser sources usually utilize active rare-earth-doped fibers cladding-pumped by multimode laser diodes (LDs), but they operate in limited wavelength ranges. Singlemode-passive-fiber based Raman lasers are abl

We report on the concept of an innovative source to produce polarized proton/deuteron beams of a kinetic energy up to several GeV from a laser-driven plasma accelerator. Spin effects have been implemented into the particle-in-cell

In order to understand the transport of fast electrons within solid density targets driven by an optical high power laser, we have numerically investigated the dynamics and structure of strong self-generated magnetic fields in suc

Laser–solid interactions are highly suited as a potential source of high energy X-rays for nondestructive imaging. A bright, energetic X-ray pulse can be driven from a small source, making it ideal for high resolution X-ray radiog

Implementation of laser-plasma-based acceleration stages in user-oriented facilities requires the definition and deployment of appropriate diagnostic methodologies to monitor and control the acceleration process. An overview is gi

We present a high-peak-power, near-infrared laser system based on optical parametric chirped pulse amplification pumped by a home-built picosecond pumping laser, which can generate over 40 mJ energy at 1450 nm center wavelength an

Processes of laser energy absorption and electron heating in an expanding plasma in the range of irradiances $I\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}^{2}=10^{15}{-}10^{16}~\text{W}\,\cdot \,\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}^{2}/\text{cm}^{2}$ are stu

The Orion facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in the United Kingdom has the capability to operate one of its two 500 J, 500 fs short-pulse petawatt beams at the second harmonic, the principal reason being to increase the

Direct numerical simulation of intense laser–solid interactions is still of great challenges, because of the many coupled atomic and plasma processes, such as ionization dynamics, collision among charged particles and collective e

We present the design and experiment of a broadband optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier (OPCPA) which provides high conversion efficiency and good beam quality at 808 nm wavelength. Using a three-dimensional spatial and tem

Pulse contrast is a crucial parameter of high peak-power lasers since the prepulse noise may disturb laser–plasma interactions. Contrast measurement is thus a prerequisite to tackle the contrast challenge in high peak-power lasers

Development of high energy laser sources with nanosecond pulses at several hertz values for repetition rate has been very attractive in recent years due to their great potential for practical applications. With the recent advancem

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