Dynamic range enhancement of self-referenced spectral interferometry with extended time excursion method by the cascaded Kerr lens process.

Self-referenced spectral interferometry with extended time excursion (SRSI-ETE) is a powerful method for single-shot characterization of the temporal contrast of a high peak power laser, which has high temporal resolution but a low dynamic range. Here, a temporal contrast reduction method is proposed that uses the cascaded Kerr lens process in two thin glass plates. Combined with the SRSI-ETE method, the measurement dynamic range of the method is increased about two orders of magnitude while having a 20 fs temporal resolution and a 40 ps time window in single shot.

Simultaneously improving multiple imaging parameters with scattering media.

Traditional optical imaging systems can provide high-quality imaging with a complicated and expensive optical design by eliminating aberrations. With the help of an optical memory effect, rather than independently improving a single imaging parameter, the simultaneous improvement of several imaging parameters by adding scattering media to the imaging systems is, to the best of our knowledge, demonstrated for the first time. As an example, in a simple single lens imaging system, in addition to the depth of field being greatly improved, spherical aberration, coma aberration, and chromatic aberration are simultaneously eliminated by placing a scattering medium between the lens and the camera.

Multistep pulse compressor for 10s to 100s PW lasers.

High-energy tens (10s) to hundreds (100s) petawatt (PW) lasers are key tools for exploring frontier fundamental researches such as strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED), and the generation of positron-electron pair from vacuum. Recently, pulse compressor became the main obstacle on achieving higher peak power due to the limitation of damage threshold and size of diffraction gratings. Here, we propose a feasible multistep pulse compressor (MPC) to increase the maximum bearable input and output pulse energies through modifying their spatiotemporal properties.