Generation of a single hot spot by use of a deformable mirror and study of its propagation in an underdense plasma

Adaptive optics systems offer the prospect of significantly increasing the capabilities of high-power laser focusability, which is currently limited by thermal distortions. Using novel wave-front measurement techniques that improve the stability of such systems and a downstream large-aperture deformable mirror that does not bear the usual limitations associated with precompensation, we have improved the focusability of a high-power (6×100-J, 1-ns) Nd:glass laser facility by a factor of 6. Measuring the wave front and the on-target focal spot at full power, we obtained after correction focal spots with a best Strehl ratio of 0.6. The pulse peak intensity could thus be increased to ∼2 × 10¹⁶ W/cm², a level beyond reach of the usual focal spot shaping techniques. We then used the near-diffraction-limited focal spots produced by this system to measure the laser-plasma coupling for a single, controlled filament of light and to underline the importance of the coupling among the numerous speckles within conventional multispeckled beams.