The omega high-power phosphate-glass system: Design and performance

Author

Bunkenberg, J. ; Boles, John ; Brown, David C. ; Eastman, Jay ; Hoose, John ; Hopkins, Robert ; Iwan, Lawrence ; Jacobs, Stephen D. ; Kelly, John H. ; Kumpan, Steven ; Letzring, Samuel ; Lonobile, David ; Lund, Lance D. ; Mourou, Gerard ; Refermat, Stanle

Author_Institution

Tropel, Inc., Fairport, NY, USA

Volume

17

Issue

9

fYear

1981

fDate

9/1/1981 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1620

Lastpage

1628

Abstract

A 24-beam phosphate-glass laser system has been built and tested. Major design features include Nd:phosphate glass, rod amplifiers up to 90 mm diameter, propagation of circularly polarized light, extensive image relaying and spatial filtering, utilization of large-aperture Pockels cells (PC´s) hard-aperture (HA) input and polarizing beamsplitters for beam balance. The system has demonstrated focusable power in excess of 12 terawatts (TW) in 50 ps (FWHM) and over 1.75 kJ in 300 ps (FWHM). The pulse is near-diffraction limited with a peak-to-background energy contrast of 10⁸. Shot rates have exceeded 2/h. A detailed description of the system design and performance is presented.

Keywords

Laser fusion; Neodymium:glass lasers; Focusing; Frequency; Glass; Laser beams; Laser modes; Optical design; Polarization; Power generation; Power lasers; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.1981.1071344

Filename

1071344