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Petawatt to Exawatt LasersThe technology and applications of the
most powerful lasers ever built
Or... Ultrafast, ultrapowerful lasers createultraintense light to study the ultrahot
Todd DitmireCenter for High Energy Density ScienceDepartment of PhysicsUniversity of Texas at Austin
PPrreesseenntteedd bbyy::
Most important: The people who do the work
U. Texas Petawatt andExawatt TeamFranki AymondWoosuk BangAaron BernsteinJoel BlakeneyTed BorgerMike DonovanGilliss DyerRamiro EscamillaErhard GaulJack GlassmanDoug HammondDonghoon KukSrdjan MarijanovicMikael MartinezMarty RinguetteCraig WagnerDave NicholsonLindsay FullerDavid BuiGiovani RossiAndrew LaffertyBlake Griffith
LLNLRick CrossChris EbbersAl ErlandsonJohn CairdBrent StuartBill MolanderTim WeilandRalph PageJerry Britten
Schott Glass N. AmericaMatt RothEric UrrutiNathan Carlie
Logos TechnologiesMike CampbellJason ZweibackDave Eimerl (Eimex)Bill Krupke
Continuum LasersCurt FredericksonLarry Cramer
LLE RochesterJon Zuegel
Graduate students:Woosuk BangJoel BlakeneySam FeldmanAhmed EhlalNirmala KandadaiIntai KimDonghoon KukSean LewisMatt McCormickNathan RileyKristina SerrattoNicholas PedrazasCraig WagnerMatt Wisher
Post Docs:Kay HoffmanRashida JaferRobert MorganHeiko Thomas
Undergraduates:Wilson BuiJennifer ChaeLindsay FullerBlake GriffithAndrew LaffertyTrevor LatsonEmily LeosDavid NicholsonJames PruetGiovanni Rossi
Center Faculty:Roger BengtsonTodd DitmireMike DownerJohn KetoMichael Marder (CNLD)Eric Taleff (Mech Eng)
Center Senior Scientists:Aaron BernsteinErhard GaulGilliss DyerHernan QuevedoAlan Wootton
Center Sabbatical Visitor:Jack Glassman
Closely CollaboratingScientists:Jens Osterholz (Dusseldorf)Aaron Edens (Sandia)Alex Arefiev (IFS)Stephan Bless (IAT)Boris Breizman (IFS)Charles ChiuRichard Fitzpatrick (IFS)Wendell Horton (IFS)Gennady Shvets (IFS)
In 1961 Q-switching was demonstrated enablingproduction of MW peak power, ns pulses
t/ττc
ΔΔN/ΔΔNt ΔΔN
I
A 30 femtosecond laser pulse is the same fraction ofone minute that one minute is of the age of the universe
1015101010510010-510-1010-15
Time scale ofatomic motions
Time scale ofhuman motions
Time scale ofinterstellar
motions
Ultrafast optical pulse:~ 3 x10-14 sec
Age of the universe:~ 2 x 1017 sec
One minute:6 x 101 sec
seconds
Oscillator
1st amplifier
2nd amplifier3rd amplifier
Telescope to expandsize of laser beam
Increasing energy
Modern high power lasers are based on the“master oscillator, power amplifier” architecture
MOPA laser chain
Cyclops laser (1974)1 beam100 J
Argus laser (1976)2 beams
1000 Joules of energy
Livermore has pushed MOPA architecture through anumber of generations to higher and higher energy
Shiva laser (1978)20 beams
10,000 JoulesNova laser (1985)
10 beams100,000 Joules
The National Ignition Facility, recently completed atLLNL is the highest energy laser in the world
National Ignition Facility - NIF (2009)192 beams
1,800,000 Joules @ 351 nm
Short Pulse Oscillator
1st amplifier
2nd amplifier3rd amplifier
Telescope to expandsize of laser beam
Short pulse - 10-13 sec long
Pulse now very high power
Damage...ouch!!
In the mid 1980's, the question of whether a short laserpulse could be amplified in a MOPA chain was broached
n=n0+n2 I(r,t)
I(r,t)
Phase delay athigh intensity
The trick to amplify such short pulses is to stretchthem out in time temporarily
A very short laser pulse actuallyhas a broad spectral bandwidth
So...stretch out the spectrum
Red travels less distance than blue
Grating
To disperse colors out in time,we spread them out in space
Using this stretching trick, we can amplify very shortpulses...and then recompress them after amplification
This technique has come to be called “Chirped Pulse Amplification” (CPA)
Ti:sapphire based CPA lasers:Pulse energy ~ .001 - 30 J,Pulse duration <30 - 100 fs,Peak Power < 100 TW; 1 PWRepetition Rate ~ 1 kHz - 1 Hz
Shortest pulse systems and most“table-top” CPA lasers
Nd:glass based CPA lasersPulse energy 10 - 1000 JPulse duration > 100 fsPeak power 10 - 1000 TWRepetition rate ~ 1 shot/min - 1 shot/hr
Highest energy systems, many of “facility” scale
The current state-of-the-art ultrafast, ultraintenselasers tends to fall into two categories
Ti:sapphire has advantages and disadvantages inhigh power CPA lasers
Absorption and emission spectrumof Ti:sapphire
Gain bandwidth in Ti:sapphire is verylarge →→ amplification of pulses as
short as 20 fs
Large scale Ti:sapphire crystals
High quality Ti:sapphire can only beproduced with aperture up to ~10 cm
Nd:glass is very attractive for high power lasersbecause it can be fabricated with large aperture
Nd:glass can be efficiently pumped by flashlamps
Large aperture amplifiers can be fabricated
Nd:glass absorption spectrum
Wavelength (Å)
%Ab
sorp
tion
The principal limitation to the use of Nd:glass inCPA lasers is that it exhibits limited gain bandwidth
Gain spectrum of two kinds of laser glass
Calculation of the effects of gain narrowing in Nd:glass
Gain narrowing of the ultrafastpulse spectrum tends to limitNd:glass CPA lasers to pulse
duration of 500 fs
ΔΔλλ ~ 30 nm
The Petawatt at LLNL
Nova laser
90 cm gratings to compress Nova pulses
PPeettaawwaatttt ssppeeccss::
550000 JJ eenneerrggyy
550000 ffss ppuullssee dduurraattiioonn
PPeeaakk iinntteennssiittyy >> 11002200 WW//ccmm22
The first Petawatt laser was demonstrated at LawrenceLivermore by implementing CPA on the NOVA laser
Information derived from M. D. Perry et al “Petawatt LaserReport” LLNL Internal report UCRL-ID-124933.
Petawatt laser
A “Petawatt” is many times more power than all thepower delivered by all the power plants in the US
Power output of U.S. electrical grid:~ 80,000 GWh/week = 0.5 TW
A state-of-the-art petawatt laserhas 2000 times the power outputof all power plants in the US
There are different kinds of laser glass whicheach have slightly different center wavelengths
Q-98 Phosphate glass
Peak Wavelength: 1054 nm
Peak cross section: 4.3 x 10-20 cm2
Linewidth (FWHM): 21.1 nm______________________________
Nd2O3 ~3%P2O5 ~ 97%
Wavelength (µµm)
Rela
tive
Fluo
resc
ence
Peak Wavelength: 1061 nm
Peak cross section: 2.9 x 10-20 cm2
Linewidth (FWHM): 28.2 nm______________________________
Nd2O3 ~3%SiO2 ~ 97%
LG-680 Silicate glass
Wavelength (µµm)
Rela
tive
Fluo
resc
ence
The Texas Petawatt Laser is housed in the RLMHigh Bay
Layout of the Texas Petawatt Facility in the Robert Lee Moore Basement
We are operating an OPCPA front end whoseprincipal component is a custom 4J pump laser
Pump beam spatialprofile @ 4J
Pump beam temporalprofile @ 4J
ΔΔττ=4.3 ns
time (ns)
Two 315 mm disk amplifiers from NOVA are used ineach beamline as the final laser amplifiers
The NOVA Laser at LLNL 31 cm Disk amps from NOVA
Concrete shielding blocks have been installed in thetarget bay
Texas Petawatt Target Bayprior to shielding installation
Texas Petawatt Target Bay with shieldinginstalled around the Petawatt beam target area
A modern ultra intense laser is the brightest knownsource of light
Light intensity......near a light bulb ~ .03 W/cm2
... of sun light on Earth ~ .14 W/cm2
...at the surface of the sun ~ 7000 W/cm2
...near a black hole during a gamma ray burst~ 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1020) W/cm2
...of a petawatt CPA laser> 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000(a billion-trillion or 1021) W/cm2
...of a focused HeNe laser ~ 500 W/cm2
Petawatt lasers access extreme regimes of physicalparameter space
HHiigghh eelleeccttrriicc ffiieellddss
EE ~~ 110011 -- 110012 VV//ccmm
FFiieelldd ssttrreennggtthh iiss 110000 ttoo 11000000 ttiimmeess
tthhaatt ooff tthhee eelleeccttrriicc ffiieelldd ffeelltt bbyy aann
eelleeccttrroonn iinn aa hhyyddrrooggeenn aattoomm
PPWW llaasseerr ffooccuusseedd ttoo <<1100 µµmm↓↓
FFooccuusseedd lliigghhtt iinntteennssiittyy ooff
>> 11002200 -- 11002222 WW//ccmm22
HHiigghh bbrriigghhttnneessss aanndd pprreessssuurree
RRaaddiiaannccee eexxcceeeeddss tthhaatt ooff aa 11 MMeeVV bbllaacckk
bbooddyy
LLiigghhtt pprreessssuurree PP == II//cc == 3300 -- 33000000 GGbbaarr
HHiigghh eelleeccttrroonn qquuiivveerr eenneerrggyy
UUosc == 11 MMeeVV -- 1100 MMeeVV
EElleeccttrroonn mmoottiioonn ccaann bbeeccoommee rreellaattiivviissttiicc
((UUosc > mme cc2 == 551122 kkeeVV))
High Field Science High Energy Density Science
CCoonncceennttrraatteedd eenneerrggyy
EEnneerrggyy ddeennssiittyy iinn aa ffeemmttoosseeccoonndd ppuullssee iiss
11001111 JJ//ccmm33
CCoorrrreessppoonnddss ttoo ~~ 11 MMeeVV ppeerr aattoomm aatt
ssoolliidd ddeennssiittyy
Temperature (eV)
Plas
ma
dens
ity(c
m-3
)1025
1020
1015
1010
105
100
10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105
Earthiono-sphere
Flames
Glowdischarge
Solar wind Earth plasma sheet
Highpressure
arc
Shocktubes
Magneticfusion
experiments
ICF/NIF
Focus
Z-pinchesStro
ngly
coupled
plasmas
Debye radius >1 cm
Mean free path >1 cm
Room temperature
Atmosphericdensity
DT fusionignition
temperature
DD fusionignition
temperature
Temperature and Density Conditionsfor Different Plasmas
High energy density matter is created by heatingdense plasma to very high temperature
Diamondanvilcells
HED MatterPressure > 1 Mbar
Solid targetlaser plasmas
Short pulse laserheated gases
Matterionized
Pairplasmas
The interaction of intense laser pulses with differenttargets leads to quite different physical effects
Size scale
1 Å 10 Å 100 Å 1000 Å 1 µµm 10 µµm
Single atoms Molecules Clusters Solids
High Intensity Laser Irradiation (>1016 W/cm2)
• Tunnel Ionization• Above Threshold Ionization• Electron energies ~ 100 eV
• Coulomb explosion• Ion energies 100 eV
• High temperature plasma formation• Collisional processes• Collective phenomena• Te ~ 1000 eV• Ti 100 eV
Collective phenomena?Ion explosion?
Laser wavelength
Highly non-perturbative laser intensities push photo-ionization into the tunneling regime
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
101 102 103 104 105
Lase
rInt
ensi
ty(W
/cm
2 )
Ionization Potential (eV)
He+
He2+
Ne6+
Ne8+
Ar10+
Ne9+
Kr34+
U82+
U90+
Current LaserTechnology
Experimentallyobserved to
date
Radius
Radius
Bindingatomicpotential
Ground statewave packet
Oscillating laser fieldDistortedpotential
Wavepacket cantunnel intocontinuum
A strong laser field can ionizean atom by tunneling
Photo-IonizationIntensity Threshold
Recent evi-dence for this
in UT/UMexperiments
Accessible with theTexas Petawatt
Electrons with large longitudinal momentum can“ride” the laser wave
z
c
vzE
γ1
≈−cvc z ⇒ time needed to slide off the peak is
γτ
4/T≅
where T - period of the laser light.
Near GeV electrons ejectedwithin 4° of the laser axis
Monte Carlo simulation usinga focused PW beam
Ionization in a strongly relativistic beam will be accompaniedby strong, free-wave acceleration of the ejected electrons
• Ionization "injects" elec-trons right at the peak of thefield
• This yields much greaterenergies than if the laserinteracts with free electrons
laser focus
ponderomotive force
A cluster irradiated by an intense fs laser, violentlyexplodes, ejecting ions with high kinetic energy
1) time = - 100 fs
55 atom argon clusterbefore irradiation
2) time = - 20 fs
Laser field begins to heat andexpel electrons from cluster
3) time = + 20 fs
Ions explode by Coulomb forces
electrons confined byspace charge forces
laser fieldSimulation with I = 1016 W/cm2
ΔΔττ = 50 fs
A gas of exploding deuterated clusters can produce aburst of fusion
Length ~ 1- 10 mm
Average density~ 1019 - 1020 cm-3
Focused laser in
Hot fusion
plasma
Cooling
jacket
Laser in
Deuterium
cluster
plume
Relevant fusion reactions:
D + D →→ He3 (0.82 MeV) + n (2.45 MeV)
D + T →→ He4 (3.5 MeV) + n (14.1 MeV)
We have produced ~ 2 x 107 DD fusion n/shot in clusterswith the Texas Petawatt Laser (~ 100 J energy)
kTi 20 keV
A 1 MA pulsed power source constructed atSandia will be installed on the TPW in February
x 4 units to be installed onTexas Petawatt
• Anticipate 150 - 200 T
150 fs
Accelerating gradient ~ ne1/2 ne ~ (1/ΔΔtpulse)2Linear wakefield bestdriven by fs pulses
The 100 fs TPW will allow flat-field resonant, multi-GeV laser wakefield acceleration of electrons
10,000
1000
100
10
1
10-4 10-2 1 102 104
Classic Plasma
Denseplasma
QuantumDegenerateHot Matter
ΓΓ=1
Tem
pera
ture
(eV)
Density (g/cm-3)
P ~ 1 Gbar
P ~ 5 Mbar
dege
nera
te
Plasma ρρ - T diagram
Adiabati
c
expans
ion
Heatingpulse
Coresof largeplanets
Conditio
ns deep
in astar
Isochoric heating can be combined with optical and x-rayprobes to derive information about a hot dense plasma
ΓΓ=100
Heated SampleNear solid density
Short laser pulseor burst of parti-
cles heats material
Short optical pulse mea-sures reflectivity andexpansion
Measurereflectivity andexpansion
Time resolved emission
Measure
temperature
from
blackbodyradiation
A quantitative understanding of these HED plasmaphysics issues is of considerable practical importance
“Rescattering” of laser driven electrons at the surface of asharp plasma gradient can produce pulses of fast electrons
Scattering at the conducting surface breaks the adiabaticity of thelaser oscillation
→→ "Brunel absorption"
e- trajectory
Overdense plasma(shields field)
Energy
(eV)
Time (s)
Simulated e- trajectories and energyin relativistic field at plasma surface
Up = 50 keV (5 x 1017 W/cm2)
y (µm)vacuum
plasma
z (µm)
Solid Target
Intense ultrafast pulse
1) Oscillating laser fieldaccelerates electrons
2) Electrons flyinto target
3) Electron bunches aredriven into the targetspaced by one wavelength
Hot denseplasma
4) Electrons aredirected normalto target surface
At 3 x 1020 W/cm2 on LLNL PW laser:
Up to 48J of protons (12% of laser energy) wereobserved in protons with energy >10 MeV
Acceleratedprotons
Relativistic electrons produced by a SPLcan accelerate protons from a solid
Target normal sheath acceleration of protons to >10MeV was observed first at the LLNL Petawatt Laser
Proton spectrum taken on the Titan 250 TW laser
Proton energy (eV)
Using hydrodynamic simulations we are able to evaluatevarious EOS tables for Al in the 10 - 20 eV region
Gamma Ray Bursts are among the most energetic andenigmatic events in the Universe
One possible mechanism is the production ofinternal shocks in relativistic plasma jets -
collisions of electron positron plasmas
The distribution of gamma-ray burstsources on the sky
Pair plasmas may exist nearblack hole candidates and may
play a role in GRBsMatter- antimatter plasma(electrons and positrons)
-
++
+
+
+
+-
-- --
-
Relativistic shock front
PW laser
At sufficiently high intensity, direct positronproduction by laser driven electrons is possible
Production of a pair plasma results and the explosion of this plasmaresults in an e-e+ fireball →→ with potential relevance to gamma ray bursts
Solid Target
Intense ultrafast pulse
Strong ponderomotive forces driveelectrons →→ Thot ~ 1 MeV
e- e+ fireball
Pair production inrelativistic plasma
Experiment proposed by Liang et al. PRL 81, 4887 (1998)
Energy (MeV)dN
/dEd
ΩΩ
Hot electron and positron spectrummeasured from the LLNL PW laser
Positron spectrum
1 10 100105
106
107
108
109
1010
1011
(1/MeV-sr)
e- at 30o
e- at 95o
e+ at 30o
10-15
10-14
10-13
10-12
10-11
100 101 102 103 104
1 PW
100 PW
Increasing
peak power
Increasing compactness
Realistic bandwidth limitfor high energy (optical)lasers
University scale laser systems
High EnergyPW systems
Laser Energy (J)
Puls
edu
ratio
n(s
)
1st generationPW lasers
(LLNL, Osaka,RAL etc.)
Increasing aperture
10 TW
Z-Petawatt at SNLPetawatt atOmega EP
“ARC” Petawatton NIF (future)
Texas PetawattDiocles at U. Nebraska
Titan at LLNL
105 106
1 EW
????
How high in laser power can we go using chirpedpulse amplification?
NOVA Petawatt
The science enabled by an exawatt laser has yetto be examined in detail
Focused intensity: > 1025 W/cm2 Electron quiver energy: ~ 10 GeV
Light pressure: ~ 1015 bar Proton quiver energy: ~ 100 MeV
• Macroscopic relativistic electron plasmas (pair plasmas)
• Relativistic ion plasmas
• TeV electron acceleration
• Hawking Unruh radiation
• Vacuum birefringence
Laser Pulse Energy (J)
Neut
ron
Yiel
d
Y ~ E2.2
Y ~ E2.0
35 fs pulsesf/15 focusing(Falcon laser)
100 fs pulsesf/2 focusing(JanUSP laser)
100
1000
104
105
106
107
0.01 0.1 1 10
1 ps pulsesf/2 focusing(JanUSP laser)
Y ~ E2.2
40 fs pulsesf/10 focusing(THOR laser)
100 1000 10,000
108
109
1010
1011
1012
150 fs pulsesf/40 focusing(Texas Petawatt)
EW-class 100 fs laser
An exawatt-class laser could produce a unique plasmaenvironment for possible nucleosynthesis experiments
Plasma conditions:kTi 20 keVplasma volume 1 cm3(cylinder d = 5 mm; l = 2 cm)
ion density 1019 - 1020 cm-3
Inertial lifetime of plasma 10 ns(possibly longer with addition of pulsedmagnetic field)
1013
100,000
with pulsed mag-netic confinement
107 less density than NIF but...103 times longer plasma life
102 - 103 times greater volume~ 102 -103 times greater shot rate
Possible environmentfor nucleosynthesis?
N. M. Naumova et al. “Relativistic Generation of Isolated Attosecond Pulses ina λ3 Focal Volume” Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 063902 (2004)
Attosecond pulses are reflectedfrom the relativistically movingplasma surface
Relativistic motion of macroscopic amounts of matter(plasma) might become possible
A strong field can induce effects in virtual pairsproduced in the vacuum
Cartoon of virtual pairs in the vacuum
Virtual e-e+ pair lifetime Δt ~ h/mc2 ≈ 10-21 s
Field required to accelerate electron to mc2 ≈ eEcΔt
Ecrit = m2c3/eh = 1.6 x 1016 V/cm
Polarizing field
Vacuum physics at extreme fields has never been exploredUnanswered questions in QED/Standard Model:e.g. why don’t vacuum fluctuations gravitate?
At sufficient intensities it should be possible toobserve the optical nonlinearity of vacuum
Radius
Oscillating laser fieldDistortedpotential
Wavepacket cantunnel intocontinuum
Laser polarization
Eat = 5 x 109 V/cm Intensity~ 3.5 x 1016 W/cm2
=1.3 x 1016 V/cm Intensity ~ 2.2 1029 W/cm2
mc2
-mc2
Atom/vacuum subject to an oscillating field E=E0sin(ωt - kz)
s = 2mc2/eE
Dirac sea of fillednegative energy
states
Positive energy states
Electron can tunnelinto a physical energystate
Tunnelionization
rate
Atom Vacuum
Polarization of atoms gives rise to nonlinearitieswith E ~ 0.1% Eat
I ~ 109 W/cm2
Polarization of vacuum gives rise to nonlinearitieswith E ~ 0.1% ESI ~ 1022 W/cm2
With a 10-100 PW laser it might be possible to observe birefringence of the vacuum
The Europeans have initiated an EU funded project tobuild multiple 10 PW-class lasers
Three ELI Pillars
• Bucharest, Romania: ELI - NPDevoted to nuclear physics with intenselasers and gamma beams
• Prague, Czech Republic: ELI - CZDevoted to work on electron acceleration
• Szeged, Hungary; ELI - ASDevoted to attosecond pulse generation
The hybrid mixed glass architecture would enableconstruction of a compact 10 PW laser
Mechanical Engineering conception of the 10 PW Hybrid Mixed glass laser
Pulse shaped OPCPA pump lasers
OPCPA stagesOscillator, pulse
cleaner and stretcher
10 cm silicatedisk amp
30 cm phosphatedisk amp
30 cm amp power conditioning
final amp double pass telescope8-grating pulse compressor
Laser output:Energy: 1500 J,Pulse duration: <150 fsrepetition rate: 1 shot/minLaser Wavlength: 1054 nmTemporal pulse contrast: 1010:1 at > 10 ps
We have isolated two candidate glasses which havea broad gain spectrum and good gain properties
K-824 Tantalate/Silicate glass
Peak Wavelength: 1065 nm
Peak cross section: 2.4 x 10-20 cm2
Linewidth (FWHM): 38.2 nm______________________________
Ta2O5 57%SiO2 17%MgO 10%BaO 15%Nd2O3 ~1%
Wavelength (µµm)
Peak Wavelength: 1067 nm
Peak cross section: 1.8 x 10-20 cm2
Linewidth (FWHM): 41.2 nm______________________________
Al2O3 42%CaO 38%BaO 10%SiO2 8%Nd2O3 ~4%
L-65 Aluminate glass
Wavelength (µµm)
AluminatePhosphateK-824 Silicate
Phosphate
The architecture of a mixed glass exawatt laserwould be straightforward
A key element would be in the suc-cessful tiling of 15 MLD gratings foreach compressor
Final gain would be in 8 NIF-style beamlinesx8
8x 15 kJ =120 kJ in120 fs
The high energy amplifier architecture of a mixed-glassExawatt laser would be based on NIF technology
The idea of tiling multiple gratings for compression of1 µm pulses has been demonstrated at Omega EP
Two-grating phased array atthe U. of Rochester
Pulse compression data usingthe two grating array(U. of Rochester)
We are presently at a cross roads in examininghow to get to move beyond 1 PW powers
• Can 10 PW be built in five years and
• Is there a technology route to an exawatt in a decade?
• Push to shorter pulses or higher pulse energy?
• Utilize Ti:sapphire or some other gain medium?
• Can OPCPA be employed all the way to an exawatt?
• How can 10 PW to exawatt pulses be compressed?
• What will it cost to build a 10 PW laser or an exawatt?
Using hybrid OPCPA/Mixed laser glass technology, ~100 fs PW lasers at E > 100Jare possible and it is possible to build a 10 PW laser on this technology now