Degradation of the contrast of a short light pulse in a CPA system

Abstract

Abstract We have calculated the effect of four-wave mixing of the main radiation pulse with the background radiation components on the value of the output radiation contrast in a chirped pulse amplification system of petawatt laser facilities. Formulae are presented that make it possible to quantify the contributions of two mechanisms, i.e. Kerr nonlinearity of the refractive index of the amplifying medium and gain saturation. For typical values of the nonlinear refractive index, both contributions are comparable. The possibility of mutual quenching of nonlinear contributions is noted. The influence of spectral filtering of radiation on the output pulse contrast is considered.