Achieving the laser intensity of 5.5x10(22) W/cm(2) with a wavefront-corrected multi-PW laser

Abstract

The generation of ultrahigh intensity laser pulses was investigated by tightly focusing a wavefront-corrected multi-petawatt Ti:sapphire laser. For the wavefront correction of the PW laser, two stages of deformable mirrors were employed. The multi-PW laser beam was tightly focused by an f/1.6 off-axis parabolic mirror and the focal spot profile was measured. After the wavefront correction, the Strehl ratio was about 0.4, and the spot size in full width at half maximum was 1.5x1.8 mu m(2), close to the diffraction-limited value. The measured peak intensity was 5.5x10(22) W/cm(2), achieving the highest laser intensity ever reached. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement