In this Topical Reivew, developments and challenges related to the next generation of high power lasers will be addressed. This special symposium will partly focus on recent advances in pulse post-compression schemes, including their potential for multi-petawatt laser systems and high-intensity applications. Another important aspect of the Symposium is dedicated to a discussion on standardized characterization methods for high power lasers.
Session I: New Perspectives on Pulse Post-compression
Organizers
Anne-Lise Viotti, Lund University and DESY, Sweden and Germany
Christoph M. Heyl, Helmholtz Institute Jena and DESY, Germany
Tamas Nagy, Max Born Institute, Germany
Recently there has been a remarkable boost in post compression technology driven by innovative techniques such as stretched capillaries, multi-pass cells or self-compressed solitons. The scope of the studies includes not only energy and power up-scaling but they also explore larger compression ratios, various pulse duration regimes, soliton-like dynamics as well as operation at different wavelength ranges, from the deep ultraviolet to mid infrared. In this session, new directions and the latest achievements will be presented by leading scientists including both theoretical and experimental aspects of the field.
Invited Speakers
John Colin Travers, Heriot-Watt University, UK
Yoann Zaouter, Amplitude Systemes, France
Session II: Innovative Technologies for the Next Generation of Ultra-intense Lasers
Organizers
Zhaoyang Li, Osaka University, Japan
Yuxin Leng, Shanghai Institute of Optics & Fine Mechanics, China
Colin Danson, AWE, UK
The ultra-intense laser source is crucial for relativistic physics, and after the invention of Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA), it has experienced rapid development in the past three decades. Tens of petawatt (1015 watt) lasers were constructed worldwide, especially two 10-petawatt lasers in Europe and China, creating >1022 W/cm2 peak-intensities. More recently, several institutes/labs in Europe, East Asia, and North America have renewed their goals to 100/200-petawatt. However, linearly enlarging the current 10-petawatt lasers to 100/200-petawatt would be a great challenge in both engineering-construction and economic-investment. This symposium will present the latest innovative technologies and discuss opportunities and challenges towards the next-generation ultra-intense laser (e.g., exawatt-class (1018 watt) peak-power and/or >1025 W/cm2 peak-intensity).
Invited Speakers
Christophe André Simon-Boisson, Thales LAS France, France
Olimpia Budriga , I.N.F.L.P.R., Romania
Igor Jovanovic, University of Michigan, USA
Jingui Ma, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Session III: Advanced Laser Metrology in the Context of High Power, High Energy Laser Facilities
Organizers:
Ioan Dancus, ELI-NP, Romania
Eric Cormier, University Bordeaux, France
Andreas Maier, University of Hamburg, Germany
The rapid rise of high-power laser facilities opens new challenges for the scientific community on discovering, inventing, and providing new techniques for their characterization. Temporal contrast and spatiotemporal coupling become of vital importance for short pulses and massive beams. Beam sampling takes an essential role as no direct beam measurement can be performed. All of these have the final challenge of assessing the laser field that the target will experience in order to understand the laser-matter interaction at new levels. On the other hand, the vital function of metrology is performing comparable measurements according to common standards and procedures. Difficulty in comparing results from different high-power laser systems due to the lack of standardization can be observed at this moment. For this symposium, we propose presentations describing current methods and devices that are in use and the challenges opened by the high power laser systems characterization.
Invited Speakers
Adrien LeBlanc, IPP, France
Virginia Lorenz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Shayan Mookherjea, University of California San Diego, USA
Kei Nakamura, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Thomas Oksenhendler, iTEOX, France
François Sylla, SourceLAB SAS, France
Daniel Ursescu, ELI-NP, Romania