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A novel focal spot positioning method for high peak power lasers

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Abstract

The precise positioning of focal spots plays a crucial role in laser–matter interactions, especially for strong field physics requiring high laser focused intensity. A novel method based on the porous mask is proposed to directly positioning the focal spots of high peak power lasers. In this method, a porous mask is introduced before the laser compressor to substantially weaken laser energy while without changing laser-focusing characteristic, and different levels of energy attenuation can be easily realized by optimizing the porous mask. In addition, proof-of-principle experiments have also been carried out in high peak power femtosecond lasers up to hundreds-terawatt (TW), and the results efficiently demonstrate the validity and feasibility of this method. To our knowledge, it is the first time to achieve the direct positioning of the focal spots of high peak power lasers, which can efficiently facilitate the experimental investigations of strong field laser–matter interactions.

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (61925507), National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0123700), Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academic Science (XDB1603), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2017SHZDZX02), Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (20ZR1464600), Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (18XD1404200), Shanghai Sailing Program (21YF1453800), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS.

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  1. Fenxiang Wu and Zongxin Zhang contribute equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics and CAS Center for Excellence in Ultra-Intense Laser Science, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai, 201800, China

    Fenxiang Wu, Zongxin Zhang, Jiabing Hu, Jiayi Qian, Jiayan Gui, Xihang Yang, Xaojun Yang, Peile Bai, Yi Xu & Yuxin Leng

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  1. Fenxiang Wu
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  2. Zongxin Zhang
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  10. Yuxin Leng
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Correspondence to Yuxin Leng.

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Wu, F., Zhang, Z., Hu, J. et al. A novel focal spot positioning method for high peak power lasers. Appl. Phys. B 128, 4 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-021-07720-8

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