Dependence of the focal intensity of a femtosecond laser pulse on the non-flatness of compressor diffraction gratings

Abstract

An analytical expression for the focal intensity of a laser pulse was obtained for an asymmetric out-of-plane compressor with gratings of arbitrary surface shape. The focal intensity is most strongly affected by the linear angular chirp caused by the spatial shift of different frequencies on the second and third gratings. The chirp can be eliminated by simply rotating the fourth grating by an optimal angle, which significantly reduces the requirements for the grating quality. It is shown that the decrease in the focal intensity depends on the product of the grating surface root mean square and pulse spectrum bandwidth. With low-quality gratings, spectrum narrowing would not reduce focal intensity; contrariwise, it may even slightly increase it.