Ensuring compactness, reliability, and scalability for the next generation of high-field lasers

If further developments in high-field lasers are to be accessible to universities and institutes, new laser materials and phase control techniques, which will result in compact, reliable systems with higher peak power, must be adopted. The choice of high-saturation-fluence gain material and the measurement and active control of temporal and spatial phase distortions for compact chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) systems of the future are discussed. Using the proper material and phase control a focused intensity of 10/sup 25/ W/cm/sup 2/ is theoretically possible.