We will present advances of metasurface fabrication which enable substrate-engraved antireflection surfaces and birefringence elements. Large-beam 351 nm laser damage performance of designer metasurfaces fabricated for antireflection applications will be discussed. We will also present fabrication technology that has helped pave the way toward subwavelength quasi-linear all-glass metasurface gratings for quarter waveplate application at 351 nm.
The advent of high energy, high peak power laser systems through chirped pulse amplification (CPA) in broadband solid-state gain media has opened new avenues into High Energy Density, High Field and Material Science research. There are ongoing efforts at numerous institutions in Europe, USA, and China that are striving to achieve output powers up to 200 PW. One main limitation of total laser energy output is the damage threshold and physical size of diffraction gratings. For the 10 PW (1.5 kJ, 150 fs) ELI-Beamline L4 Aton laser, we have developed a new class of meter-sized, multilayer dielectric (MLD) gratings based a low-dispersion design of 1136 lines/mm for a Littrow out-of-plane compressor design operating at 1060 nm. This new class of MLD gratings allows for approximately 4X more total energy on grating compared to the present state of the art. Fabrication of a 850 mm wide x 700 mm tall grating resulted in 98.7% efficiency with 0.3% uniformity at 1060 nm.
We present experimental results that show how diode-pumped Tm:YLF can be used to develop the next generation of lasers with high peak and high average power. We demonstrate the production of broad bandwidth, λ≈ 1.9 μm wavelength, high energy pulses with up to 1.6 J output energy and subsequent compression to sub-300 fs duration. This was achieved using a single 8-pass amplifier to boost stretched approximately 50 μJ pulses to the Joule-level. Furthermore, we show the average power capability of this material in a helium gas-cooled amplifier head, achieving a heat removal rate almost ten times higher than the state-of-the-art, surpassing 20 W/cm2. These demonstrations illustrate the capabilities of directly diode-pumped Tm:YLF to support TW to PW-class lasers at kW average power.
Metasurfaces exhibit great potential to redefine limitations inhibiting high power laser optics. Some areas of expected improvement include throughput improvement with enhanced design flexibility, mitigation of filamentation damage by enabling thinner optics, and reduction in system complexity and price. Metasurface utilize engineered surface ‘layer’ with thickness on the order of the design wavelength, which consists of an array of sub-wavelength elements. Our methodology is based on scalable generation of sacrificial metal nanoparticle mask followed by directional etching to pattern the glass. The end-result all-glass metasurface has high laser damage durability, mechanical robustness, design flexibility and controllability of the metasurface features, and the ability to craft antireflective layers and basic optical elements. Recent advancements have been made resulting in ultra-broadband antireflective layers, induced birefringence in the glass for waveplates, and refined optical elements.
The Matter in Extreme Conditions Upgrade (MEC-U) project is a major upgrade to the MEC instrument on the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) user facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The MEC instrument combines the XFEL with a high-power, short-pulse laser and high energy shock driver laser to produce and study high energy density plasmas and materials found in extreme environments such as the interior of stars and fusion reactors, providing the fundamental understanding needed for applications ranging from astronomy to fusion energy. When completed, this project will significantly increase the power and repetition rate of the MEC high intensity laser system to the petawatt level at up to 10 Hz, increase the energy of the shock-driver laser to the kilojoule level, and expand the capabilities of the MEC instrument to support groundbreaking experiments enabled by the combination of high-power lasers with the world’s brightest X-ray source. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is developing a directly diode-pumped, 10 Hz repetition rate, 150 J, 150 fs, 1 PW laser system to be installed in the upgraded MEC facility. This laser system is an implementation of LLNL’s Scalable High power Advanced Radiographic Capability (SHARC) concept and is based on chirped pulse amplification in the diode-pumped, gas-cooled slab architecture developed for the Mercury and HAPLS laser systems. The conceptual design and capabilities of this laser system will be presented.
The high-average-power petawatt-class Big Aperture Thulium (BAT) laser concept was proposed to meet the requirements for the next-generation compact particle accelerators. Our previous work reported the laser damage test and modeling of pulse compression gratings designed for the BAT laser and operating at 2 micron wavelength. Notably, we observed blister formation of the underlying layers at low fluences and ablation of the grating pillars at higher fluences. Here we present the measurement and analysis of these bulging damage precursors on the MLD gratings and mirrors using the cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy combined with focused ion beam processing.
We present a method for producing durable thin optics for high-power lasers, using scalable process for spatially patterned glass engraved metasurface. The process is based on forming an etch-mask using laser raster-scan of a thin metal film on a glass, followed by dry-etching and removal of the metal mask. We present fabricated structures, and characterization of their optical performance, mechanical stability, and laser damage performance.
Recent work utilizing metal etching masks to fabricate substrate-engraved metasurfaces have been handicapped by the available etching depth, restricting the bandwidth of antireflective performance. Advances made to etch mask technology to facilitate deeper etching will be discussed here, and the taller ensuant metasurface features will be presented. The antireflective performance of these high aspect ratio structures (broad acceptance angles and broadband antireflective performance for both polarizations) will be discussed.
We present a method for producing spatially invariant glass engraved meta-surfaces, which is scalable, has high mechanical stability, and has high laser damage durability. The process is based on dewetting a thin metal film on a glass, followed by dry etching and metal mask removal. We will present masking technology that enables deeper etching while maintaining sub-wavelength feature sizes, performance of the optimized metasurfaces as antireflective layers, mechanical stability and laser durability of the fabricated surfaces, and discuss ongoing work.
We present an alternative approach to dielectric meta-surfaces and demonstrate its scalability, mechanical durability and laser damage resilience. The process is based on laser raster-scan of a thin metal film on a glass, followed by dry-etching and removal of the metal nano-particles mask. We will present new approaches developed to “boost” the attainable optical response based on new underlying physics of the laser printed Au nanoparticle mask.
We present a method for producing spatially patterned glass engraved meta-surfaces, which is scalable, has high mechanical stability and high laser damage durability, and thus promising for ultra-thin optics implementation for high-power lasers. The process is based on laser raster-scan of a thin metal film on a glass, followed by dry-etching and removal of the metal mask. We present fabricated structures, characterization of their optical performance, mechanical stability and laser damage performance.
We present a simple and scalable method for the production of optics with incorporated metasurfaces, resulting in durable all-dielectric based meta-optics. The scalability and robustness of this method overcome limitations imposed by current technology when fabricating metasurfaces for high power laser applications, while the simplicity of the fabrication process makes it an exciting technique for metasurface generation. This talk will describe the method, show resultant fabricated metasurfaces and the sensitivity introduced by processing parameters – i.e. control over generated surfaces, and discuss the laser damage performance of these engineered large-scale metasurfaces.
Novel architectures of Petawatt-class, high peak power laser systems that allow operating at high repetition rates are opening a new arena of commercial applications of secondary sources and discovery science. The natural path to higher average power is the reduction of the total heat load induced and generated in the laser gain medium and eliminating other inefficiencies with the goal to turn more energy into laser photons while maintaining good beam quality. However, the laser architecture must be tailored to the specific application and laser parameters such as wavelength, peak power and intensity, pulse length, and shot rate must be optimized. We have developed a number of different concepts tailored to secondary source generation that minimize inefficiencies and maximize the average power. The Scalable Highaverage- power Advanced Radiographic Capability (SHARC) and the Big Aperture Thulium (BAT) laser are examples of two such high average power laser concepts; SHARC is designed for production of ion beams and x-rays, and exploration of high energy density physics at 1.5 kW average power, and BAT is envisioned for driving laser-based electron accelerators at 300 kW average power.
Macroscopic porous membranes with pore diameter uniformity approaching the nanometer scale have great potential to significantly increase the speed, selectivity, and efficiency of molecular separations. We present fabrication, characterization, and molecular transport evaluation of nanoporous thin silicon-based sieves created by laser interferometric lithography (LIL). This fabrication approach is ideally suited for the integration of nanostructured pore arrays into larger microfluidic processing systems, using a simple all-silicon lithographic process. Submilli-meter-scale planar arrays of uniform cylindrical and pyramidal nanopores are created in silicon nitride and silicon, respectively, with average pore diameters below 250 nm and significantly smaller standard error than commercial polycarbonate track etched (PCTE) membranes. Molecular transport properties of short cylindrical pores fabricated by LIL are compared to those of thicker commercial PCTE membranes for the first time. A 10-fold increase in pyridine pore flux is achieved with thin membranes relative to commercial sieves, without any modification of the membrane surface.
We present a new class of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates based on lithographically-defined two-dimensional
rectangular array of nanopillars. Two types of nanopillars within this class are discussed: vertical pillars and
tapered pillars. For the vertical pillars, the gap between each pair of nanopillars is small enough (< 50 nm) such that
highly confined plasmonic cavity resonances are supported between the pillars when light is incident upon them, and the
anti-nodes of these resonances act as three-dimensional hotspots for SERS. For the tapered pillars, SERS enhancement
arises from the nanofocusing effect due to the sharp tip on top. SERS experiments were carried out on these substrates
using various concentrations of 1,2 bis-(4-pyridyl)-ethylene (BPE), benzenethiol (BT) monolayer and toluene vapor. The
results show that SERS enhancement factor of over 0.5 x 109 can be achieved, and BPE can be detected down to femto-molar
concentration level. The results also show promising potential for the use of these substrates in environmental
monitoring of gases and vapors such as volatile organic compounds.
Multilayer dielectric (MLD) diffraction gratings for Petawatt-class laser systems possess unique laser damage
characteristics. Details of the shape of the grating lines and the concentration of absorbing impurities on the
surface of the grating structures both have strong effects on laser damage threshold. It is known that electric field
enhancement in the solid material comprising the grating lines varies directly with the linewidth and inversely with
the line height for equivalent diffraction efficiency. Here, we present an overview of laser damage
characteristics of MLD gratings, and describe a process for post-processing ion-beam etched grating lines using
very dilute buffered hydrofluoric acid solutions. This process acts simultaneously to reduce grating linewidth and
remove surface contaminants, thereby improving laser damage thresholds through two pathways.
Small micrometer-sized roughness on optical surfaces, caused by laser damage and/or redeposition of laser ablated
material, can cause local electric field intensification which may lead to damage initiation both on the optics and/or
downstream. We examined the smoothing of etched periodic surface structures on SiO2 substrate with 10.6μm CO2
laser using atomic force microscopy. The characteristic surface tension driven mass flow of the glass under
different laser parameters were simulated using computational fluid dynamics and correlated with experimental
results. We found that during CO2 laser polishing the estimate viscosity of the silica glass appears to be higher than
typical literature values measured at a temperature similar to the laser heating conditions. This discrepancy can be
explained by the observation that at high temperature, a significant portion of the hydroxyl content in the layer of
heated silica glass can diffuse out resulting in a much stiffer glass.
To enable high-energy petawatt laser operation we have developed the processing methods and tooling that produced both the world's largest multilayer dielectric reflection grating and the world's highest laser damage resistant gratings. We have successfully delivered the first ever 80 cm aperture multilayer dielectric grating to LLNL's Titan Intense Short Pulse Laser Facility. We report on the design, fabrication and characterization of multilayer dielectric diffraction gratings.
Deanna Pennington, Michael Perry, Brent Stuart, Robert Boyd, Jerald Britten, Curtis Brown, Steve Herman, John Miller, Hoang Nguyen, Bruce Shore, Gregory Tietbohl, Victor Yanovsky
We recently demonstrated the production of over a petawatt of peak power in the Nova/Petawatt Laser Facility, generating > 600 J in approximately 440 fs. The Petawatt Laser Project was initiated to develop the capability to test the fast ignitor concept for inertial confinement fusion, and to provide a unique capability in high energy density physics. The laser was designed to produce near kJ pulses with a pulse duration adjustable between 0.5 and 20 ps. At the shortest pulse lengths, this laser is expected to surpass 1021 W/cm2 when focused later this year. Currently, this system is limited to 600 J pulses in a 46.3- cm beam. Expansion of the beam to 58 cm, with the installation of 94-cm gratings, will enable 1 kJ operation. Target experiments with petawatt pulses will be possible either integrated with Nova in the 10 beam target chamber or as a stand alone system in an independent, dedicated chamber. Focusing the beam onto a target will be accomplished using an on axis parabolic mirror. The design of a novel targeting system enabling the production of ultrahigh contrast pulses and an easily variable effective focal length is also described.
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