Spiral phase plasma mirror

In this work we present a method for generating ultra-intense Laguerre-Gauss laser beams, using 3D direct laser writing of spiral phase plasma mirrors. These single-use mirrors provide an economical and scalable solution for arbitrary spatial beam shaping at ultra-high laser intensities. The use of these plasma-based optical devices is demonstrated for the case of an orbital angular momentum of l = 1, with incident laser intensity of 10(17) W cm(-2). We conclude by discussing practical considerations for using these optical elements on petawatt-class laser systems