Adaptive wavefront correction on a 100-TW/10-Hz chirped pulse amplification laser and effect of residual wavefront on beam propagation

International audienceWe demonstrate the wavefront correction of a 100-TW (25 fs, 2.5 J) high repetition rate Ti:sapphire laser. A 36-actuator bimorph deformable mirror was used under vacuum and the adaptive optic system is working at 10 Hz in a closed-loop configuration with a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor. We also numerically studied the effects of the deformable mirror actuators on laser beam free propagation to determine the ideal position of the deformable mirror in the laser chain. Our ability to focus the beam was improved to near-diffraction-limited quality and intensity as high as 1.4 × 10^20 W/cm^2 was reached with a 500-mm focal length off-axis parabolic mirror