OMEGA, a 60-beam, 351 nm, Nd:glass laser with an on-target energy capability of more than 40 kJ, is a flexible facility that can be used for both direct- and indirect-drive targets and is designed to ultimately achieve irradiation uniformity of 1% on direct-drive capsules with shaped laser pulses (dynamic range ≳400:1). The OMEGA program for the next five years includes plasma physics experiments to investigate laser–matter interaction physics at temperatures, densities, and scale lengths approaching those of direct-drive capsules designed for the 1.8 MJ National Ignition Facility (NIF); experiments to characterize and mitigate the deleterious effects of hydrodynamic instabilities; and implosion experiments with capsules that are hydrodynamically equivalent to high-gain, direct-drive capsules. Details are presented of the OMEGA direct-drive experimental program and initial data from direct-drive implosion experiments that have achieved the highest thermonuclear yield (1014 DT neutrons) and yield efficiency (1% of scientific breakeven) ever attained in laser-fusion experiments.
A high-contrast preamplifier based on optical-parametric amplification with a short pump pulse is demonstrated. A gain larger than 10(5) and measurement-limited contrast higher than 10(11) are obtained over a large temporal range extending within less than 10 ps of the peak of the pulse, because of the high instantaneous parametric gain provided by a short pump pulse in a nonlinear crystal. The energy gain and high contrast of this preamplifier make it a good seed source for high-power laser systems.
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