Vacuum mechatronic laser alignment system on the NOVA laser

The experiments conducted on NOVA are done to investigate inertially confined laser fusion reactions. To this end, the ten beams of the laser are aligned to within 30 mu m. The target chamber employs a vacuum mechatronic based reticle/target positioning system to accomplish this. It is a five degree-of-freedom chamber resident system, known as the Alignment Aids Positioner (AAP). The AAP aids in beam and diagnostic alignment by accurately positioning a reticle at the target chamber center within 7 mu m. The AAP system increases target positioning and alignment flexibility and accuracy through the use of a computer-controlled multi-degree-of-freedom stage assembly. The AAP has two positioning regimes to move the alignment reticle and do beam alignment. One is coarse positioning in the Y-Z plane that moves a high-resolution stage assembly to target chamber center. The other regime is high-resolution movement in the X, Y, Z and theta directions.<>