Adaptive optics for aberration correction in PW lasers

The peculiar properties and principles of beam correction in pulsed lasers of PW power level are considered. Wide-aperture adaptive systems have been created to correct for aberrations and improve the focusing on the target. Bimorph deformable mirrors with free of “print-through” reflective surface and sizes of 320 and 400 mm have been developed, where the initial surface shapes after manual alignment were 1 and 1.5 µm (P- V), respectively. The use of an adaptive system with 320 mm deformable mirror in a 4.2 PW Ti: Sa laser provided a record intensity 1.lx1023 W/cm
²
on the target when focusing by off-axis parabolic mirror f = 300 mm.