Obtaining UV energy balance with 1-THz spectral bandwidth on the 60-beam OMEGA laser

Author

Guardalben, M.J. ; Babushkin, A. ; Craxton, R.S. ; Keck, R.L. ; Donaldson, W.R. ; Thorp, K.A.

Author_Institution

Lab. for Laser Energetics, Rochester Univ., NY, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

11-11 May 2001

Firstpage

157

Abstract

Summary form only given. To obtain the high irradiation uniformity required for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion, laser beam smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) is used on the OMEGA laser. This technique relies on a broad spectral bandwidth about the 1054-nm Nd:glass laser wavelength that is efficiently frequency converted to the third harmonic (351 nm) by using two KDP triplet crystals in series. This paper reports the UV energy performance of OMEGA since that time and describes the method used to maintain good beam-to-beam energy balance with high frequency-conversion efficiency.

Keywords

laser beams; laser fusion; laser tuning; neodymium; optical harmonic generation; solid lasers; 1054 nm; 351 nm; 60-beam OMEGA laser; KDP triplet crystals; KH/sub 2/PO/sub 4/; Nd:glass laser; OMEGA beams; THz spectral bandwidth; UV energy balance; UV energy performance; broad spectral bandwidth; direct-drive inertial confinement fusion; frequency-tripling crystals; high frequency-conversion efficiency; high irradiation uniformity; laser beam smoothing; spectral dispersion; Bandwidth; Crystals; Frequency conversion; Inertial confinement; Laboratories; Laser beams; Laser tuning; Rivers; Scattering; US Department of Energy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO '01. Technical Digest. Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-662-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.2001.947644

Filename

947644