The all-diode-pumped laser system POLARIS——an experimentalist’s tool generating ultra-high contrast pulses with high energy

The development,the underlying technology and the current status of the fully diode-pumped solid-state laser system POLARIS is reviewed.Currently,the POLARIS system delivers 4 J energy,144 fs long laser pulses with an ultra-high temporal contrast of 5 × 1012 for the ASE,which is achieved using a so-called double chirped-pulse amplification scheme and cross-polarized wave generation pulse cleaning.By tightly focusing,the peak intensity exceeds 3.5 × 1020 W cm-2.These parameters predestine POLARIS as a scientific tool well suited for sophisticated experiments,as exemplified by presenting measurements of accelerated proton energies.Recently,an additional amplifier has been added to the laser chain.In the ramp-up phase,pulses from this amplifier are not yet compressed and have not yet reached the anticipated energy.Nevertheless,an output energy of 16.6 J has been achieved so far.