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The Laser Megajoule (LMJ) is a French large scale laser facility dedicated to inertial fusion and plasma physics research. LMJ front-ends are based on fiber laser technology at nanojoule range [1]. Scaling the energy of those fiber seeders to the millijoule range is a way to upgrade LMJ’s front ends architecture and could also be used as seeder for lasers for ELI project for example. However, required performances are so restrictive (optical-signal-to-noise ratio higher than 50 dB, temporally-shaped nanosecond pulses and spatial single-mode top-hat beam output) that such fiber systems are very tricky to build.
High-energy fiber amplifiers
In 2015, we have demonstrated, an all-fiber MOPA prototype able to produce a millijoule seeder, but unfortunately not 100% conform for all LMJ’s performances. A major difficulty was to manage the frequency modulation used to avoid stimulated Brillouin scattering, to amplitude modulation (FM-AM) conversion, this limits the energy at 170µJ.
For upgrading the energy to the millijoule range, it’s necessary to use an amplifier with a larger core fiber. However, this fiber must still be flexible; polarization maintaining and exhibit a strictly single-mode behaviour. We are thus developing a new amplifier architecture based on an Yb-doped tapered fiber: its core diameter is from a narrow input to a wide output (MFD 8 to 26 µm). A S² measurement on a 2,5m long tapered fiber rolled-up on 22 cm diameter confirmed that this original geometry allows obtaining strictly single-mode behaviour. In a 1 kHz repetition rate regime, we already obtain 750 µJ pulses, and we are on the way to mJ, respecting LMJ performances.
Beam delivery
In LMJ architecture the distance between the nanojoule fiber seeder and the amplifier stages is about 16 m. Beam delivery is achieved with a standard PM fiber, such a solution is no longer achievable with hundreds of kilowatt peak powers. An efficient way to minimize nonlinear effects is to use hollow-core (HC) fibers. The comparison between the different fibers will be presented in the conference.
Fiber spatial beam shaping
Spatial beam shaping (top-hat profile) is mandatory to optimize the energy extraction in free-space amplifier. It would be very interesting to obtain a flat-top beam in an all-fiber way. Accordingly, we have design and realize a large mode area single-mode top-hat fiber able to deliver a coherent top-hat beam. This fiber, with larger MFD adapted to mJ pulse, will be implemented to perform the spatial beam shaping from coherent Gaussian profile to coherent top-hat intensity profile in the mJ range. In conclusion, we will present an all-fiber MOPA built to fulfil stringent requirements for large scale laser facility seeding. We have already achieved 750 µJ with 10 ns square pulses. Transport of high peak power pulses over 17 m in a hollow-core fiber has been achieved and points out FM to AM conversion management issues. Moreover, spatial beam shaping is obtained by using specifically designed single-mode fibers. Various optimizations are currently under progress and will be presented.
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