The rapid development of the optical-cycle-level ultra-fast laser technologies may break through the bottleneck of the traditional ultra-intense laser [i.e., Petawatt (PW, 10¹⁵ W) laser currently] and enable the generation of even higher peak-power/intensity lasers. Herein, we simulate an ultra-broadband concept for the realization of an Exawatt-class (EW, 10¹⁸ W) high peak-power laser, where the wide-angle non-collinear optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (WNOPCPA) is combined with the thin-plate post-compression. A frequency-chirped carrier-envelope-phase stable super-continuum laser is amplified to high-energy in WNOPCPA by pumping with two pump-beamlets and injected into the thin-plate post-compression to generate a sub-optical-cycle high-energy laser pulse. The numerical simulation shows this hybrid concept significantly enhances the gain bandwidth in the high-energy amplifier and the spectral broadening in the post-compression. By using this concept, a study of a prototype design of a 0.5 EW system is presented, and several key challenges are also examined.

Femtosecond petawatt (fs-PW) lasers, with femtosecond pulses and sub-meter-sized beams, could be easily distorted by spatiotemporal coupling (STC). In 2016, a femtosecond terawatt pulsed beam was experimentally reconstructed in the 3-dimensional (3D) space-time domain for the first time, and showing STC induced distortions. Referring to recently developed laser techniques, traditional first-order STCs can be controlled and then removed. However, the complex STC induced by wavefront errors in a meter-sized grating compressor, where the spatial and spectral coordinates of beams and pulses are coupled, would introduce a non-negligible and complicated distortion. Herein, we theoretically simulated this complex STC in the 3D space-time/spectrum domain and presented its evolution with various factors, which opens a new perspective to analyze CPA lasers in the 3D domain.

During the process of Bessel beam generation in free space, spatiotemporal optical wave-packets with tunable group velocities and accelerations can be created by deforming pulse-fronts of injected pulsed beams. So far, only one determined motion form (superluminal or luminal or subluminal for the case of group velocity; and accelerating or uniform-motion or decelerating for the case of acceleration) could be achieved in a single propagation path. Here we show that deformed pulse-fronts with well-designed axisymmetric distributions (unlike conical and spherical pulse-fronts used in previous studies) allow us to obtain nearly-programmable group velocities with several different motion forms in a single propagation path. Our simulation shows that this unusual optical wave-packet can propagate at alternating superluminal and subluminal group velocities along a straight-line trajectory with corresponding instantaneous accelerations that vary periodically between positive (acceleration) and negative (deceleration) values, almost encompassing all motion forms of the group velocity in a single propagation path. Such unusual optical wave-packets with nearly-programmable group velocities may offer new opportunities for optical and physical applications.

Three-dimensional (3-D) light solitons in space–time, referred to as light bullets, have many novel properties and wide applications. Here we theoretically show how the combination of diffraction-free beam and ultrashort pulse spatiotemporal-coupling enables the creation of a straight-line propagation light bullet with freely tunable velocity and acceleration. This light bullet could propagate with a constant superluminal or subluminal velocity, and it could also counter-propagate with a very fast superluminal velocity (e.g., − 35.6c). Apart from uniform motion, an acceleration or deceleration straight-line propagation light bullet with a tunable instantaneous acceleration could also be produced. The high controllability of the velocity and the acceleration of a straight-line propagation light bullet would enable very specific applications, such as velocity and/or acceleration matched micromanipulation, microscopy, particle acceleration, radiation generation, and so on.

Compressing high-energy laser pulses to a single-cycle and realizing the “λ³ laser concept”, where λ is the wavelength of the laser, will break the current limitation of super-scale projects and contribute to the future 100-petawatt and even Exawatt lasers. Here, we have realized ultra-broadband gold gratings, core optics in the chirped pulse amplification, in the 750–1150 nm spectral range with a > 90% −1 order diffraction efficiency for near single-cycle pulse stretching and compression. The grating is also compatible with azimuthal angles from −15° to 15°, making it possible to design a three-dimensional compressor. In developing and manufacturing processes, a crucial grating profile with large base width and sharp ridge is carefully optimized and controlled to dramatically broaden the high diffraction efficiency bandwidth from the current 100–200 nm to over 400 nm. This work has removed a key obstacle to achieving the near single-cycle 100-PW lasers in the future.