Plasma Transmission Gratings for Compression of High-Intensity Laser Pulses

The peak power of a femtosecond laser is limited by the size and damage threshold of its solid-state optical components, with the final grating of a chirped pulse amplification compressor posing a challenging bottleneck on the path to higher-power systems.Practical hundred-petawatt to exawatt lasers will require optics that draw on the higher damage tolerance of plasma to manipulate high-intensity light, but plasma is a difficult medium to control and sets stringent limits on optical performance.Here we describe the design of a compact high-power laser system that uses plasma transmission gratings-with currently achievable parameters-for chirped pulse amplification.A double compression architecture compensates for the low angular dispersion of the plasma gratings.We explore the design constraints set by available plasma parameters and use particle-in-cell simulations to examine performance at high light intensity.These simulations suggest that the meter-scale final grating for a 10-PW laser could be replaced with a 1.5-mm-diameter plasma grating, allowing compression to, for example, 22 fs with 90% efficiency and providing a path towards compact multipetawatt laser systems.