# TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Plasma Gratings for High-Intensity Laser Pulse Compression Canonical: https://abierto.us/opportunities/il13658 - Solicitation number: IL-13658 - Notice type: Special notice - Status: Closed. Deadline was April 4, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT - Department: Department of Energy - Contracting office: LLNS – DOE Contractor (899011) - NAICS: 333248 All Other Industrial Machinery Manufacturing - Place of performance: Livermore, California - County: Alameda County (FIPS 06001). https://abierto.us/counties/alameda-county-ca-06001 - City: Livermore. https://abierto.us/cities/livermore-ca-0641992 - First posted: March 4, 2024 - Last posted: March 4, 2024 - SAM.gov: https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/1bd74b6316ee42f9a1089b4fbd03a640/view ## Description **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 ## Publications - March 4, 2024: Special notice, due April 4, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT. Notice 1bd74b6316ee42f9a1089b4fbd03a640. https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/1bd74b6316ee42f9a1089b4fbd03a640/view ## Points of contact - IPO Support, ipo-support@llnl.gov - Elsie Quaite-Randall, quaiterandal1@llnl.gov, 9254237302 --- Source: SAM.gov Contract Opportunities bulk extract. Confirm deadlines on SAM.gov before responding. Cite https://abierto.us/opportunities/il13658.