This Engineering Research Equipment grant will contribute to research work on the generation of optical pulses with ultra-high peak power and an extremely high peak-to-background intensity contrast ratio. Using a novel technique called Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) the principal investigators have developed a compact, table-top size laser source producing a peak power of one Terawatt and intensities up to 1018 watts/cm2. Present research is directed towards the development of a system capable of generating even higher peak powers. For this new CPA source to be effective, it is extremely important that the pulses be exceptionally clean, i.e. that they have a very high peak- to-background intensity contrast ratio. For some applications these extreme peak power pulses will have to have a contrast ratio in the range of 1010:1. To achieve this, a new modelocked Ti:sapphire oscillator using external pulse compression will be constructed which is capable of producing subpicosecond pulses.
