400nm ultra-broadband gratings for near-single-cycle 100 Petawatt lasers

Yuxing Han; Zhaoyang Li; Yibin Zhang; Fanyu Kong; Hongchao Cao; Yunxia Jin; Yuxin Leng; Ruxin Li; Jianda Shao

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39164-3

400nm ultra-broadband gratings for near-single-cycle 100 Petawatt lasers

Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 19;14(1):3632. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39164-3.

Authors

Yuxing Han^{1

2

3}, Zhaoyang Li^{4

5}, Yibin Zhang^{1

2

3}, Fanyu Kong^{1

3}, Hongchao Cao^{1

3}, Yunxia Jin^{6

7

8}, Yuxin Leng⁹, Ruxin Li^{9

10}, Jianda Shao^{11

12

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Thin Film Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
² Center of Laboratory of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Materials for High Power Laser, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. lizy@zjlab.ac.cn.
⁵ Zhangjiang Laboratory, Shanghai, 201210, China. lizy@zjlab.ac.cn.
⁶ Laboratory of Thin Film Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. yxjin@siom.ac.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Materials for High Power Laser, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. yxjin@siom.ac.cn.
⁸ CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-Intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. yxjin@siom.ac.cn.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
¹⁰ Zhangjiang Laboratory, Shanghai, 201210, China.
¹¹ Laboratory of Thin Film Optics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. jdshao@siom.ac.cn.
¹² Key Laboratory of Materials for High Power Laser, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. jdshao@siom.ac.cn.
¹³ CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-Intense Laser Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China. jdshao@siom.ac.cn.
¹⁴ Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, 310024, China. jdshao@siom.ac.cn.

Abstract

Compressing high-energy laser pulses to a single-cycle and realizing the "λ³ laser concept", where λ is the wavelength of the laser, will break the current limitation of super-scale projects and contribute to the future 100-petawatt and even Exawatt lasers. Here, we have realized ultra-broadband gold gratings, core optics in the chirped pulse amplification, in the 750-1150 nm spectral range with a > 90% -1 order diffraction efficiency for near single-cycle pulse stretching and compression. The grating is also compatible with azimuthal angles from -15° to 15°, making it possible to design a three-dimensional compressor. In developing and manufacturing processes, a crucial grating profile with large base width and sharp ridge is carefully optimized and controlled to dramatically broaden the high diffraction efficiency bandwidth from the current 100-200 nm to over 400 nm. This work has removed a key obstacle to achieving the near single-cycle 100-PW lasers in the future.