Abstract
The vortex beam (Laguerre–Gaussian, LG10 mode) is employed to alleviate crystal damage in multiple-plate continuum generation. We successfully compressed 190-fs, 1030-nm pulses to 42 fs with 590 μJ input pulse energy, which is 5.5 times higher than that obtained by a Gaussian beam setup of the same footprint. High throughput (86%) and high intensity-weighted beam homogeneity (>98%) have also been achieved. This experiment confirms the great potential of beam shaping in energy up-scaling of nonlinear pulse compression.