Optimizing sub-ns pulse compression for high energy application

We demonstrate similar to 40X pulse compression (down to similar to 300 ps) with similar to 1 joule, nanosecond pulses for high energy applications requiring >= 1 gigawatt of peak power. Our method is based on the established principle of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). To push the SBS technique to its highest peak-power limit, a combination of theoretical modeling and experiments is used to identify and optimize all critical parameters, including optical configuration, interaction length, intensity matching, choice of gain medium and thermal stability. Pulse compression results are presented both at 1064 nm and 532 nm, with performances close to the theoretical limit and excellent shot-to-shot reproducibility. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America