Coherent addition of gratings for chirped-pulse-amplified lasers based on near-field and far-field measurements

The development of phased-array grating compressor is a crucial issue for high-energy, ultra-short pulse petawatt-class lasers. Almost all systems have adopted a tiled-grating approach to meet the size requirements for the compression gratings. We present a computer-control test system utilizing near-field interference and far-field focusing capable of monitoring and fast correcting tiled errors of the grating compressor. In this system, the tilt/tip errors between the two gratings are determined by the Fourier transform (FT) of the individual interference fringe, and the piston errors are determined by the ratio of the two primary peaks formed in the far-field pattern as a function of the piston difference. Monochromatic grating phasing is achieved experimentally and pulse compression is demonstrated with a tiled grating system.