Exawatt-Zettawatt pulse generation and applications

A new amplification method, weaving the three basic compression techniques, Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA), Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) and Plasma Compression by Backward Raman Amplification (BRA) in plasma, is proposed. It is called C-3 for Cascaded Conversion Compression. It has the capability to compress with good efficiency kilojoule to megajoule. nanosecond laser pulses into femtosecond pulses, to produce exawatt-and-beyond peak power. In the future. C-3 could be used at large-scale facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) or the laser Megajoule (LMJ) and open the way to zettawatt level pulses. The beam will be focused to a wavelength spot size with a f#1. The very small beam size, i.e. few centimeters, along with the low laser repetition rate laser system will make possible the use of inexpensive, precision, disposable optics. The resulting intensity will approach the Schwinger value, thus opening up new possibilities in fundamental physics. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.