Open AccessRevisiting an airgap split-optics mitigation for beam filamentation in high power lasers
Author(s) -
Eyal Feigenbaum,
J. Bude,
Jérémy Nicola,
C. Widmayer
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.27.032764
Subject(s) - filamentation , optics , physics , laser beam quality , beam (structure) , laser , diffraction , perturbation (astronomy) , laser beams , quantum mechanics
We extend the split-optic approach for mitigating filamentation in a thick optical component previously proposed for small beams to conditions relevant to high-power lasers. The split-optic approach divides a thick optic into two thinner optics separated by an airgap to reduce filamentation through diffraction management. Our numerical study focuses on filamentation of a flat-top beam with intensity modulation noise sources passing through a split-optic system. The improvement in the distance to collapse in glass is shown to be potentially substantial (>30%), yet has limited increase with the airgap size, unlike the common understanding when considering a collapse of a whole beam or a sole perturbation on a beam. The improvement in the collapse distance in glass asymptotes to an upper bound value that depends mainly on the beam mean intensity and its contrast for any airgap size above some value that depends mainly on the shortest spatial periods comprising the excitation noise source. Examining the difference in the simulation results for a periodic versus a randomly generated perturbation source-term suggests that the observed effect is governed by the statistical interference dynamics of the beam while propagating through the airgap.