Diffraction gratings: from principles to applications in high-intensity lasers

TLDR

Diffraction gratings, discovered in the 18th century, are now essential in spectrometry and high‑energy laser applications, with fabrication requiring nanometer‑scale period control enabled by laser‑based lithography. The paper reviews diffraction grating physics and their role in pulse compression for high‑power laser systems. Laser‑based optical beam lithography allows precise, large‑scale control of grating period, facilitating their use in high‑intensity laser pulse compression.

Abstract

Diffraction gratings were discovered during the 18th century, and they are now widely used in spectrometry analysis, with outstanding achievements spanning from the probing of single molecules in biological samples to the analysis of solar systems in astronomy. The fabrication of high-quality diffraction gratings requires precise control of the period at a nanometer scale. The discovery of lasers in the 1960s gave birth to optical beam lithography in the 1970s. This technology revolutionized the fabrication of diffraction gratings by offering highly precise control of the grating period over very large scales. It is surprising to see that a few years after, the unique spectral properties of diffraction gratings revolutionized, in turn, the field of high-energy lasers. We review in this paper the physics of diffraction gratings and detail the interest in them for pulse compression of high-power laser systems.