Ultrashort intense-field optical vortices produced with laser-etched mirrors

Authors

James Strohaber, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Timothy D. Scarborough, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Cornelis J. Uiterwaal, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

12-20-2007

Comments

Published in APPLIED OPTICS 20 December 2007 / Vol. 46, No. 36. Copyright © 2007 Optical Society of America. Used by permission.

Abstract

We introduce a simple and practical method to create ultrashort intense optical vortices for applications involving high-intensity lasers. Our method utilizes femtosecond laser pulses to laser etch grating lines into laser-quality gold mirrors. These grating lines holographically encode an optical vortex. We derive mathematical equations for each individual grating line to be etched, for any desired (integer) topological charge. We investigate the smoothness of the etched grooves. We show that they are smooth enough to produce optical vortices with an intensity that is only a few percent lower than in the ideal case. We demonstrate that the etched gratings can be used in a folded version of our 2f–2f setup [Opt. Express 19, 7599 (2005)] to compensate angular dispersion. Finally, we show that the etched gratings withstand intensities of up to 10¹² W/cm².