Performance of the beamlet laser, a test bed for the national ignition facility

Bruno M. Van Wonterghem; John A. Caird; Charles E. Barker; Jack H. Campbell; John R. Murray; David Ralph Speck

doi:10.1117/12.238023

12 April 1996 Performance of the beamlet laser, a test bed for the national ignition facility

Bruno M. Van Wonterghem, John A. Caird, Charles E. Barker, Jack H. Campbell, John R. Murray, David Ralph Speck

Proceedings Volume 2770, Laser Optics '95 and ICONO '95: Superintense Laser Fields; (1996) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.238023
Event: Laser Optics '95, 1995, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Abstract

We present initial performance studies for beamlet, a single-beam prototype for megajoule- class neodymium-glass laser fusion drivers using a multipass main amplifier, adaptive optics, and efficient, high-fluence conversion to the third harmonic. The beamlet final amplifier uses Brewsters-angle glass slabs with a square 39 by 39 cm² aperture and a full-aperture plasma-electrode Pockels cell switch. The laser has been tested at the fundamental wavelength over a range of pulselengths from 1 - 10 ns up to energies of 5.8 kJ at 1 ns and 17.3 kJ at 10 ns at a beam area of 35 by 35 cm². A 39-actuator deformable mirror system corrects the beam to a Strehl ratio of 0.4.

Citation Download Citation

Bruno M. Van Wonterghem, John A. Caird, Charles E. Barker, Jack H. Campbell, John R. Murray, and David Ralph Speck "Performance of the beamlet laser, a test bed for the national ignition facility", Proc. SPIE 2770, Laser Optics '95 and ICONO '95: Superintense Laser Fields, (12 April 1996); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.238023

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