Harmonic conversion of large-aperture 105-μm laser beams for inertial-confinement fusion research

Wegner, Paul J.; Henesian, Mark A.; Speck, D. R.; Bibeau, C.; Ehrlich, R. B.; Laumann, Curt W.; Lawson, Janice K.; Weiland, Timothy L.

doi:10.1364/ao.31.006414

Cited by 44 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Test parameters were designed to simulate NIF conditions as closely as possible. The frequency converter used in the tests was of a two-crystal design identical to that adopted for the NIF, consisting of type-I doubling in 10.5 mm of KDP followed by type-II sum-frequency mixing in 9.5 mm of deuterated KDP (KD*P) [12][13][14]. The crystals were 37-cm prototypes of the 40-cm NIF crystals, finished to a surface roughness of< 20 Angstroms RMS prior to the tests to be consistent with NIF specifications for optical quality.…”

Section: -0mentioning

confidence: 99%

<title>Third-harmonic performance of the Beamlet prototype laser</title>

et al. 1997

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The Bearnlet laser is a nearly full-scale, single-aperture prototype of the driver design for the National Ignition Facility (hIIF). As part of a test and validation plan for the NIF design, Beandet was recently equipped with final focussing optics and diagnostics for the purpose of evaluating integrated component performance and equivalent target-plane irradiance conditions at the 0.35 l-pm output wavelength specified for NIF targets. A 37-cm aperture two-crystal converter scheme generates the third harmonic of the Nd:glass 1.053-pm wavelength with high eftlciency. 'Ihe efficiency of the converter has been characterized and is reported, along with detailed measurements of the near-field and far-field W irradiancedistributionsat operatingconditions up to and exceedhg red-line levels for the N'IF. Dependence of observed beam quality on critical laser parameters including output power, B-integral, and spatial filtering are discussed and compared with numerical simulations.

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Section: -0mentioning

confidence: 99%

<title>Third-harmonic performance of the Beamlet prototype laser</title>

et al. 1997

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“…The output laser will inject a frequency converter system with two pieces of 14 mm thick KDP crystal for third harmonic generation (351 nm). In our laser system, the half tall full width of tuning angles in the frequency converter system is about 250 rad [31]. Therefore, the beam drifting angle should be less than this angle to ensure a high efficiency frequency conversion.…”

Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the beam-pointing stability in the high power laser system

Ding

Lü

et al. 2016

Optik

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“…Frequency conversion 52 of the fundamental wavelength at 1053-nm to the second and third harmonic wavelengths of 527-nm and 351-nm allows for more efficient absorption of laser energy by the target. 53 This section describes a method for efficiently converting the desired pulse shape to short wavelengths using highly deuterated potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals (DKDP).…”

Section: Freqency Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…52 Type I phase matching is preferred for the 52 For that reason, it has become the default choice for ICF lasers around the world. In the LIFE laser design, aggressive birefringence compensation will limit polarization non-uniformities, allowing for efficient frequency conversion with either a Type I/Type II or Type II/Type II frequency tripling scheme.…”

Section: Xib Frequency Converter Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compact, Efficient, Low-cost Lasers (CELL) Project: Final Report

Deri¹,

Bayramian²,

Erlandson³

2012

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PROJECT MOTIVATION and SCOPEDevelopment of clean, sustainable and affordable energy sources is a national and international challenge. Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) may provide a transformational solution that is scalable, proliferationresistant, and that generates negligible nuclear waste. To produce energy economically competitive with alternative power plants, the IFE laser drive must operate at a high repetition rate (>10 Hz) with high efficiency (>10%), while maintaining beam quality suitable for focusing to a small spot suitable for compressing the fusion target. The NIF laser system meets the beam quality requirements using a solidstate gain medium pumped by flashlamps. Scaling from NIF to IFE requires increases of ~10 5 in rep rate and ~20X in efficiency, which adds significant challenges to the laser design. The increased repetition rate results in much more waste heat generated in the system, and the prevention of thermal beam quality degradation (through phenomena such as thermally-induced birefringence) becomes a critical issue. While thermal issues are mitigated by increasing the system volume, a major size increase renders the system less economical and less easy to site. LIFE laser efficiency targets can be achieved at high rep rate without reliability degradation by using diode lasers as pumps. An IFE plant requires ~10 8 diode laser bars. At current costs the diodes dominate the overall laser cost and render IFE less cost-effective. Thus, designing a compact and cost-effective laser system with the repetition rate, efficiency, and beam quality required for IFE presents a significant technical challenge.The goal of the CELL strategic initiative was to develop new laser architectures to address these challenges by leveraging recent advances in optical technology. New laser design options have become potentially feasible due to improvements in laser gain media, diode pumps, large aperture nonlinear optics, and damage-resistant optics that have occurred since NIF's conception. The project investigated designs that take advantage of these advances, combining them with advanced and novel subsystem concepts to achieve laser designs with significantly improved performance, size, and cost. APPROACHA primary objective of this project was to rapidly evaluate a variety of beamline concepts and architectures, to ascertain their suitability for IFE applications. This is best done in simulation, due to the time and expense associated with prototyping such systems, even at significantly reduced scale. These evaluations were performed rapidly using a laser energetics code ("LPM") specifically developed for this project. This tool tracks all system inefficiencies from wallplug power to the final optic, includes the power consumed by cooling systems, and captures the behavior of different laser materials. In particular, it is suitable for simulating both four-level (e.g.; Nd-based) and three-level (e.g.; Yb-based) gain media. In order to achieve fast run-times, LPM abstracts away details of optical diffraction and ...

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Harmonic conversion of large-aperture 105-μm laser beams for inertial-confinement fusion research

Cited by 44 publications

References 13 publications

<title>Third-harmonic performance of the Beamlet prototype laser</title>

<title>Third-harmonic performance of the Beamlet prototype laser</title>

Analysis of the beam-pointing stability in the high power laser system

Compact, Efficient, Low-cost Lasers (CELL) Project: Final Report

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