A stretched pulse delivered by the femtosecond frontend can be recompressed in the pulse compressor after being amplified in the laser chain in order to achieve an exit power of up to 500 TW (chirped pulse amplification scheme). It consists of two 80-cm-wide optical gratings used in single-pass configuration. While the compressor grating configuration remains fixed, the resulting recompressed pulse duration can be changed by adjustment of the pulse stretcher length at the femtosecond frontend according to the demands of the experiments.
