A way toward sub-exawatt laser: full-aperture two-grating slanted-groove compressor

We propose a new compressor geometry -a full-aperture two-grating slanted-groove compressor (F2SC), consisting of two parallel Littrow-mounted gratings with slanted grooves.The angle of slanting is chosen so as to ensure decoupling of the input and output beams.The gratings and the beam on the first grating have the same size.Optimal parameters of this and other previously proposed compressor geometries are found analytically, considering restrictions not only on the grating length but also on its height.It is shown that, similarly to a full-aperture two-grating Treacy compressor (F2TC), F2SC provides maximum power and focal intensity.The advantages of these geometries are the absence of hot spots on the second (last) grating due to beam smoothing.Power above 160PW and focal intensity up to 5.5x10 24 W/cm 2 at F/2 parabola seem quite achievable with the size of the gratings of 150x122cm for F2SC and 162x108cm for F2TC.Another F2SC advantage is the potential possibility of using multilayer dielectric gratings.