Electra: repetitively pulsed 700 J, 100 NS electron beam pumped KRF laser

Author

Hegeler, Frank ; Friedman, M. ; Sethian, John D. ; Myers, M.C. ; Wolford, Matthew F. ; Giuliani, J.L. ; Burns, P. ; Jaynes, R.

Author_Institution

Commonwealth Technol. Inc., Alexandria, VA

fYear

2006

fDate

4-8 June 2006

Firstpage

146

Lastpage

146

Abstract

Summary form only given. Electra is a repetitively pulsed, electron beam pumped krypton fluoride (KrF) laser at the Naval Research Laboratory that is developing the technologies that can meet the inertial fusion energy (IFE) requirements for durability, efficiency, and cost. The technologies developed on Electra should be directly scalable to a full size fusion power plant beam line. The laser system consists of a main amplifier with an aperture of 30times30 cm², a 10times10 cm² pre-amplifier, and a commercial discharge laser serving as the seed oscillator. The main amplifier, currently operated as an oscillator, has demonstrated single shot and rep-rate laser energies exceeding 700 J, with a pulse width of 100 ns at 248 nm. Continuous operation of the KrF laser has lasted for more than 2.5 hours without failure at 1 Hz, and tests at higher repetition rates are ongoing

Keywords

gas lasers; krypton compounds; laser beams; 100 ns; 248 nm; 700 J; Electra; KrF; discharge laser; electron beam pumped KrF laser; fusion power plant beam line; inertial fusion energy; krypton fluoride; repetitively pulsed laser; seed oscillator; Costs; Electron beams; Laboratories; Laser excitation; Laser fusion; Optical pulses; Oscillators; Power generation; Pulse amplifiers; Pump lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Science, 2006. ICOPS 2006. IEEE Conference Record - Abstracts. The 33rd IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Traverse City, MI

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0125-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PLASMA.2006.1707018

Filename

1707018