Optical design of an array-grating compressor for high-power laser pulses

In this paper, we propose and discuss an array-grating compressor that is u sed in high power chirped-pulse amplification Nd:glass laser systems. Theor etical models including various angular errors are developed for the optica l design of the array-grating compressor. With a criterion that the stretch in the duration of the compressed pulse due to the combining imperfection must be kept below 25%, we carry out the optical design of the array-gratin g compressor for a 0.5 ps pulse duration and a l-m laser-beam diameter. The limitations to groove-width difference, parallelism, and planar are also d iscussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.