PENELOPE – amplifier benchmarks and 10 J performance

We present the status of the PENELOPE laser system currently under construction at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. We show the first energetic activation of the second to last major amplification stage boosting available energies to the 10 Joule-level, while benchmarking the performance of the whole last two amplifier sections. The expected small-signal gain at the full bandwidth of 20 nm was cross-checked with the front-end amplifier at 100 mJ.