A multi-beam, multi-terawatt Ti:sapphire laser system for laser wake-field acceleration studies

The Lasers, Optical Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies (L'OASIS) Lab of LBNL operates a highly automated and remotely controlled Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system that provides synchronized beams of 2x1.0 TW, 12 TW, and 100 TW peak-power, in a unique, radiation shielded facility. The system has been specially designed for studying high field laser-plasma interactions and particularly aimed for the investigations of laser wake-field particle acceleration. It generates and recombines multiple beams having different pulse durations, wavelengths, and pulse energies for various stages of plasma preparation, excitation, and diagnostics. The amplifier system is characterized and continuously monitored via local area network (LAN) from a radiation shielded control room by an array of diagnostics, including beam profile monitoring cameras, remote controlled alignment options, self-correcting beam-pointing stabilization loops, pulse measurement tools, such as single-shot autocorrelator for pulse duration and third-order correlator for contrast measurements, FROG for pulse shape studies