Patent ID: 8351476

Claim:
A system for generating a high-intensity focused laser pulse, comprising: a main platform and a remote platform located at a distance from the main platform; the main platform including: a laser source configured to emit a seed pulse having a first pulse length and a first intensity, a pulse stretcher configured to receive the seed pulse from the laser source and to stretch the seed pulse to form a stretched pulse having a second pulse length longer than the first pulse length, a laser amplifier configured to receive the stretched pulse from the pulse stretcher and to amplify the stretched pulse to form an amplified stretched pulse having an energy much greater than the unamplified stretched pulse, and a beam director and tracking optics, the beam director being configured to receive the amplified stretched pulse from the laser amplifier, the beam director and tracking optics being configured to direct or steer the amplified stretched pulse to the remote platform, and the beam director and tracking optics being further configured to provide rapid steering corrections to compensate for relative motion between the main platform, remote platform, and/or the stretched pulse as it propagates from the main platform to the remote platform; and the remote platform including: beam capture optics configured to receive the amplified stretched pulse from the main platform; a pulse compressor configured to receive the amplified stretched pulse from the beam capture optics and to longitudinally compress the amplified stretched pulse into a compressed laser pulse having a third pulse length comparable with the initial seed pulse length and focusing and aiming optics configured to receive the compressed laser pulse from the pulse compressor and to transversely compress the compressed laser pulse to form the high-intensity focused laser pulse, the high-intensity focused laser pulse having a third intensity much higher than the first intensity of the seed pulse at the main platform; wherein the seed pulse generated at the main platform is converted to the high-intensity focused laser pulse at the remote platform.