High-average-power femto-petawatt laser pumped by the Mercury laser facility

The Mercury laser system is a diode-pumped solid-state laser that has demonstrated over 60 J at a repetition rate of 10 Hz (600 W) of near-infrared light (1047 nm). Using a yttrium calcium oxyborate frequency converter, we have demonstrated 31.7 J/pulse at 10 Hz of second harmonic generation. The frequency converted Mercury laser system will pump a high-average-power Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplifier system that will produce a compressed peak power > 1 PW and peak irradiance > 10(23) W/cm(2). (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.