Beam shaping and compensation for high-gain Nd:glass amplification

Abstract

Beam shaping and compensation are reported for a high Nd:glass amplification system based on the liquid crystal spatial light modulation technique. As a typical application, a signal Gaussian beam of 1 nJ, with a pulse width of 3 ns, was amplified to 5 J with a flat-top intensity distribution. A spot modulation of 1.41 on the dimension of 50 mm × 50 mm was obtained. The minor beam distortion was further eliminated by applying a closed loop control. Most parameters including pulse energy, frequency, spot intensity distribution, etc., can be measured and calculated simultaneously via this proposed system. Moreover, the structure of image transfer was confirmed to be capable of maintaining high-quality image transmission in the amplification process.