Highly efficient double plasma mirror producing ultrahigh-contrast multi-petawatt laser pulses

Abstract

We present a highly efficient double plasma mirror (DPM) that provides ultrahigh-contrast multi-petawatt (PW) laser pulses with a temporal contrast ratio reaching 1017 up to 160 ps and 1012 up to 2 ps before the main pulse. The high reflectivity of 70%, along with the high-contrast enhancement factor of 700,000, was achieved from the DPM installed after the final stage of a 4 PW Ti:sapphire laser. The 4 PW laser was equipped with cross-polarized wave generation and optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification stages for initial high-contrast operation. The DPM operation was undertaken with conditions that did not modify the spatiotemporal profiles of incident multi-PW laser pulses. This highly efficient DPM with the high-contrast enhancement promises the utilization of multiple PMs as a practical rear end for upcoming tens of petawatt lasers to achieve ultrahigh temporal contrast. © 2020 Optical Society of America