Realizing the main amplification system without window glasses is important for high-power laser devices. Not only optical components and B-integration of the system are reduced, but also the output capability and beam quality of the system are improved. While the primary problem is how to maintain the cleanliness after the window glasses being removed. In response to this problem, this paper proposes a cleanness control scheme suitable for realizing the windowless operation of the main amplification system.Take one main amplification system of a high-power laser device for example, some work are conducted: integrated design of optical pipelines, introduction of air knives, and simulation analysis of airflow field and related parameters. The integrated design of the beam tubes makes the entire main amplification system to maintain a closed environment.The air knife which can generate a high-speed air curtain and block the exchange of airflow, divides the entire system into three parts: main amplifiers, beam tubes, other optical components. For each part, we use in-situ control to achieve cleanliness. To beam tubes and main amplifiers, theoretical analysis and verification of gas flow field characteristics for different process parameters are conducted. For other components, the effectiveness of air knife air curtain protection has also been experimentally studied and analyzed. Finally, it provides important guidance for realizing the remove of the window glasses of the main amplification system.
High repetition rate slab amplifier (HRRSA) is extraordinarily indispensable for the future fusion power plant, ultra-short laser, laser weapon, and so on. Thermal controlling is the decisive factor for the repetition rate and the output energy of the slab amplifier. For larger clear aperture HRRSA, flash-lamp pumped slab amplifier based on neodymium phosphate glass (Nd:glass) is chosen with the liquid cooling. The liquid coolant circulates across the Nd:glass and takes off the thermal induced in the pumping process. A novel liquid coolant (Series A) whose refractive index is the same with Nd:glass is proposed to alleviate the wavefront distortion induced by thermal. The chemical stability of the liquid coolant under high energy flash-lamp irradiation with 200 shots and under the irradiation of a 1053nm laser with 19 hours and 37 hours are experimented. The results show that the chemical stability of the liquid coolant is stable under irradiation.
Neodymium phosphate glass (Nd:glass) is the typical gain medium in the large clear aperture slab amplifiers, and provide more than 99% energy of a high power laser facility. Cladding structure is employed for decreasing the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and parasitic oscillation (PO) which are the key limits for the gain of large clear aperture slab amplifier. Polymer cladding is generally used since it was proposed.
Polymer is an organic glue which has risk to decompose and fracture under high flash-lamp irradiation while the irradiation is a common condition in the operation of a high power laser facility. Once the polymer glue falls off, the suppression of ASE and PO of cladding structure would be damaged. In addition, the impurities existing in the glue may form the counteractive scattering sources and reduce the suppression of the cladding structure. Moreover, the decomposer of the organic glue may affect the cleanliness of the slab cavity. Thus, an inorganic edge cladding structure based on hydroxide-catalysis bonding (HCB) was proposed which can match the requirements of the cladding structure and evade the organic glue in the high flash-lamp irradiation slab cavity. An antireflective film was used as the medial material whose refractive index was matched with the cladding structure. Bonded samples were prepared based on HCB and confirmatory experiment under high flash-lamp irradiation was finished.
The latest progress on high power laser facilities in NLHPLP was reported. Based on a high power laser prototype, damage behavior of 3ω optics was experimentally tested, and the key influencing factors contributed to laser-induced damage in optics were deeply analyzed. The latest experimental results of advanced precision measurement for optical quality applied in the high power laser facility were introduced. At last, based on the accumulated works of 3ω elements damage behavior status in our laboratory, beam expanding scheme was presented to increase the total maximum output 3ω energy properly and decrease the laser induced damage risking of ω optics simultaneously.
A new high power laser facility with 8 beams and maximum output energy of one beam 5kJ/3.4ns/3ω has been performed and operated since 2015. Combined together the existing facilities have constructed a multifunction experimental platform including multi-pulse width of ns, ps and fs and active probing beam, which is an effective tool for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and High Energy Density (HED) researches. In addition another peculiar high power laser prototype pushes 1ω maximum output energy to 16kJ in 5ns and 17.5kJ in 20ns in flat-in-time pulse, this system is based on large aperture four-pass main amplifier architecture with 310mm×310mm output beam aperture. Meanwhile the near field and far field have good quality spanning large energy scope by use of a wide range of technologies, such as reasonable overall design technique, the integrated front end, cleanness class control, nonlinear laser propagation control, wave-front adaptive optics and precision measurement. Based on this excellent backup, 3ω damage research project is planning to be implemented. To realize the above aims, the beam expanding scheme in final transport spatial filter could be adopted considering tradeoff between the efficient utilization of 1ω output and 3ω damage threshold. Besides for deeply dissecting conversion process for beam characteristic influence of 1ω beam, WCI (Wave-front Code Image) instrument with refined structure would be used to measure optical field with simultaneous high precision amplitude and phase information, and what’s more WCI can measure the 1ω, 2ω and 3ω optical field in the same time at same position, so we can analyze the 3ω beam quality evolution systematically, and ultimately to improve the 3ω limited output.
In a word, we need pay attention to some aspects contents with emphasis for future huger laser facility development. The first is to focus the new technology application. The second is to solve the matching problem between 1ω beam and the 3ω beam. The last is to build the whole effective design in order to improve efficiency and cost performance.
KEYWORDS: 3D modeling, Reflectivity, Amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Glasses, Neodymium, Data modeling, Monte Carlo methods, Fusion energy, Laser systems engineering
Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) causes the decrease of the inverted population density and the nonuniformity of gain in slab amplifier for high power laser systems. In this paper, a three dimension model, based on the data in SG-II, in which the residual reflection in the cladding and the ASE process are taken into consideration, is built to analyze the space distribution and time evolution of small signal gain coefficient using Monte Carlo algorithm and ray tracing. This model has been verified by comparing with the experimental data. The traverse size of slab is 68.2cm×36.3cm, which is usually decided by the clear aperture and the manufacture. By means of the model, the impact of thickness, residual reflectivity and the stimulated cross section of neodymium glass to the ASE are analyzed in detail.
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