TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Plasma Gratings for High-Intensity Laser Pulse Compression

Opportunity: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (Contract 44) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to enter into a collaboration to further develop and commercialize its Plasma Gratings for High-Intensity Laser Pulse Compression technology.

Background: The peak power of femtosecond lasers is limited by the size and damage threshold of their solid-state optical components, with the final compression grating of chirped pulse amplification systems posing a challenging bottleneck in reaching higher powers. High-power femtosecond lasers currently use reflective diffraction gratings (gold or dielectric coated) to build a compressor for chirped pulse amplification. These gratings are limited to light intensities of 1012 W/cm2, so gratings for petawatt lasers and beyond must be large to stay below the damage fluence.

Description: This invention draws on the higher damage tolerance of plasma to manipulate high-intensity light. Plasma is a difficult medium to control and sets stringent limits on optical performance. A compact high-power laser system can be realized using plasma transmission gratings for chirped pulse compression based on currently achievable plasma properties and minimal plasma volume. A double compression architecture compensates for the low angular dispersion of plasma gratings.

Design constraints can be modelled using particle-in-cell simulations of grating performance at high light intensity. These simulations suggest that the meter-scale final compression gratings for a 10-PW laser could be replaced with 2-mm-diameter plasma gratings, allowing compression to 20 fs or below with 90% efficiency for multi-petawatt (1015 W) to exawatt (1018 W) lasers.

Advantages/Benefits: Increases the damage fluence levels by almost 6 orders of magnitude making exawatt (1018 W) scale and beyond lasers practical. Enables a 1000x linear reduction of beam cross-section dimension. Enables a 1000x linear reduction in system size and weight by eliminating need for large fused-silica final optics.

Potential Applications: Intense ultrafast lasers for high energy density physics, secondary particle creation and plasma wakefield acceleration. Inertial confinement fusion research. Ultrafast X-ray radiography in medicine. Electron and ion beams for cancer therapy.

Development Status: Current stage of technology development: TRL 1-2 LLNL has filed for patent protection on this invention. U.S. Patent Application No. 2022/0376453 Plasma Gratings for High-Intensity Laser Pulse Compression published 11/24/2022 LLNL is seeking industry partners with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Moving critical technology beyond the Laboratory to the commercial world helps our licensees gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

All licensing activities are conducted under policies relating to the strict nondisclosure of company proprietary information. Please visit the IPO website at https://ipo.llnl.gov/resources for more information on working with LLNL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Note: THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT. Companies interested in commercializing LLNL's Plasma Gratings for High-Intensity Laser Pulse Compression technology should provide an electronic OR written statement of interest, which includes the following:

Company Name and address. The name, address, and telephone number of a point of contact. A description of corporate expertise and/or facilities relevant to commercializing this technology. Please provide a complete electronic OR written statement to ensure consideration of your interest in LLNL's Plasma Gratings for High-Intensity Laser Pulse Compression technology. The subject heading in an email response should include the Notice ID and/or the title of LLNL’s Technology/Business Opportunity and directed to the Primary and Secondary Point of Contacts listed below. Written responses should be directed to:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Innovation and Partnerships Office P.O.

Box 808, L-779 Livermore, CA 94551-0808 Attention: IL-13658