Numerical Study of Amplification of Subnanosecond Radiation Pulses in the Gas Amplifier of the THL-100 Laser System

Abstract

Methods for increasing the energy characteristics of the THL-100 hybrid laser system are investigated by numerical modeling. The influence of the input laser radiation energy and system of mirrors on the energy and maximal laser radiation intensity in the amplifier is investigated. The systems of amplifier mirrors in which the number of passes of the active medium changed from Nm = 27 to 39 are considered. It is shown that at Nm =27, an increase in the pump energy of the amplifier from 270 to 400 J allows the output radiation energy to be increased by a factor of 2.6 (to 8.34 J) with a maximal radiation intensity in the amplifier no more than 7 GW·cm^–2. Pulse compression to an initial duration of 50 fs will allow the average output power of the THL-100 system to be increased up to 160 TW.