High-intracavity-power thin-disk laser for the alignment of molecules

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We propose a novel approach for strong alignment of gas-phase molecules for experiments at arbitrary repetition rates. A high-intracavity-power continuous-wave laser will provide the necessary ac electric field of 10¹⁰- 10¹¹ W/cm². We demonstrate thin-disk lasers based on Yb:YAG and Yb:Lu₂O₃ in a linear high-finesse resonator providing intracavity power levels in excess of 100 kW at pump power levels on the order of 50 W. The multi-longitudinal-mode operation of this laser avoids spatial-hole burning even in a linear standing-wave resonator. The system will be scaled up as in-vacuum system to allow for the generation of fields of 10¹¹ W/cm². This system will be directly applicable for experiments at modern X-ray light sources, such as synchrotrons or free-electron lasers, which operate at various very high repetition rates. This would allow to record molecular movies through temporally resolved diffractive imaging of fixed-in-space molecules, as well as the spectroscopic investigation of combined X-ray-NIR strong-field effects of atomic and molecular systems.