Implementation of a spherical double plasma-mirror telescope for a multi-Petawatt laser
Version 2 2024-12-09, 04:32
Version 1 2024-12-06, 06:48
preprint
posted on 2024-12-09, 04:32 authored by Valeriu Scutelnic, Martin Speicher, Alice Fazzini, Petru Ghenuche, Domenico Doria, Alexandru Ailincutei, Bruno Gonzalez- Izquierdo, Theodor Asavei, Septimiu Balascuta, John Bekx, Petrisor Bleotu, Giordano Bodini, Carafino Braganza, Alexandra Brodersen, Alessandro Cavalli, Olivier Chalus, Gabriel Cojocaru, Jadyn Dmello, Ioan Dancus, Christophe Derycke, Floris Deurvorst, Michael Ehrmanntraut, Dan Gengenbach, Dan Gabriel Ghita, Lorenzo Giuffrida, Marius Gugiu, Marc Guenther, Oscar Juina, Kyle Kenney, Sumit Kumar, Mariana Martinez-Pacheco, Ignacio Minguez Bacho, Saidbek Norbaev, Nathaniel Poetranto, Hartmut Ruhl, Emanuel Schork, Markus Stein, Sven Steinke, Anda-Maria Talposi, Antonia Toma, Marco Tosca, Ashwini Ubarhande, Lidia Vasescu, Erhard Gaul, Daniel Rivas, Marius Sebastian Schollmeier, Georg KornA double plasma-mirror (DPM) system including reflective spherical optics in a telescope configuration is implemented to adapt the focal spot size of a multi-Petawatt (PW) laser beam resulting in intensity adjustability. The system is optimized to minimize aberrations at the focal plane, which ensures a high-quality focal spot. A dedicated imaging system is used to evaluate focus quality and to measure the total reflectivity of the DPM configuration at the multi-PW-level. Temporal contrast enhancement of the reflected beam is additionally demonstrated, as evidenced by higher particle yield and increased maximum kinetic energy of accelerated proton beams from nanometer-thick foils, compared to results without DPM. These findings enable the exploration of more extreme laser-plasma conditions in multi-PW laser facilities that require ultra-high temporal contrast and intensity, while also expanding the beamline’s capabilities by enabling intensity adjustment to levels beyond their designed specifications.