Ultra-high brightness (10 sup 21 W/cm sup 2 ) laser facility

New short-pulse laser technology has made possible the production of extremely bright laser sources. The use of these new techniques on large scale Nd:Glass based laser systems would make it possible to produce 1000 TW (Petawatt) pulses. Such pulses would yield focused intensities exceeding 10{sup 21}W/cm{sup 2} corresponding to an electric field in excess of 100 e/a{sub 0}{sup 2} and an energy density equivalent to that of a 10 keV blackbody. Such a source would have important applications in x-ray laser research and lead to a fundamentally new class of experiments in atomic, nuclear, solid state, plasma and high-energy density physics. Such a facility could be constructed with existing chirped-pulse'' technology. A one-year period of research addressing outstanding technical questions can extend the technology resulting in a more compact and cost effective design. For this reason, we are seeking a Director's Initiative grant in the amount of $590,000 for FY89 to investigate these issues. An equivalent amount in personnel and facilities would be provided by Y-Division. The study will include development of a chirped-pulse'' front-end capable of producing laser pulses of 2 J at 1.053 {mu}m with a 1 psec pulsewidth laser. Upon completion, this front-end will be installed on the Nova laser system in order to investigate propagation and compression issues associated with amplification of a chirped-pulse. Our goal is to demonstrate the production of 100 TW pulses using a portion of a Nova beamline.