Performance of smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) on Beamlet

The performance of the Beamlet laser with 1D SSD implemented is investigated. Simulations indicate that the critical issue for laser performance is the amount of additional divergence owing to SSD in comparison to the size of the spatial filter pinholes. At the current {plus_minus}200 {mu}rad pinholes used on Beamlet, simulations indicate that the levels of SSD divergence anticipated for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) results in a very slight degradation to the near field beam quality. Experiments performed with the Beamlet front end show no degradation to the near field beam with up to 100 {mu}rad of SSD divergence. Measurements of the smoothing of a far field speckle pattern generated by a phase plate show the expected improvement in contrast with increasing amounts of SSD divergence

Identification of a novel mechanism of blood-brain communication during peripheral inflammation via choroid plexus-derived extracellular vesicles

Here, we identified release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) by the choroid plexus epithelium (CPE) as a new mechanism of blood-brain communication. Systemic inflammation induced an increase in EVs and associated pro-inflammatory miRNAs, including miR-146a and miR-155, in the CSF. Interestingly, this was associated with an increase in amount of multivesicular bodies (MVBs) and exosomes per MVB in the CPE cells. Additionally, we could mimic this using LPS-stimulated primary CPE cells and choroid plexus explants. These choroid plexus-derived EVs can enter the brain parenchyma and are taken up by astrocytes and microglia, inducing miRNA target repression and inflammatory gene up-regulation. Interestingly, this could be blocked in vivo by intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of an inhibitor of exosome production. Our data show that CPE cells sense and transmit information about the peripheral inflammatory status to the central nervous system (CNS) via the release of EVs into the CSF, which transfer this pro-inflammatory message to recipient brain cells. Additionally, we revealed that blockage of EV secretion decreases brain inflammation, which opens up new avenues to treat systemic inflammatory diseases such as sepsis

Feasibility of High Yield / High Gain NIF Capsules

Our original ignition ''point designs'' (circa 1992) for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) were made energetically conservative to provide margin for uncertainties in laser absorption, x-ray conversion efficiency and hohlraum-capsule coupling. Since that time, extensive experiments on Nova and Omega and their related analysis indicate that NIF coupling efficiency may be almost ''as good as we could hope for''. Given close agreement between experiment and theory/modeling, we can credibly explore target enhancements which couple more of NIF's energy to an ignition capsule. We find that 3-4X increases in absorbed capsule energy appear possible, providing a potentially more robust target and {approx}10X increase in capsule yield

Target experimental area and systems of the U.S. National Ignition Facility

One of the major goals of the US National Ignition Facility is the demonstration of laser driven fusion ignition and burn of targets by inertial confinement and provide capability for a wide variety of high energy density physics experiments. The NIF target area houses the optical systems required to focus the 192 beamlets to a target precisely positioned at the center of the 10 meter diameter, 10-cm thick aluminum target chamber. The chamber serves as mounting surface for the 48 final optics assemblies, the target alignment and positioning equipment, and the target diagnostics. The internal surfaces of the chamber are protected by louvered steel beam dumps. The target area also provides the necessary shielding against target emission and environmental protection equipment. Despite its complexity, the design provides the flexibility to accommodate the needs of the various NIF user groups, such as direct and indirect drive irradiation geometries, modular final optics design, capability to handle cryogenic targets, and easily re-configurable diagnostic instruments. Efficient target area operations are ensured by using line-replaceable designs for systems requiring frequent inspection, maintenance and reconfiguration, such as the final optics, debris shields, phase plates and the diagnostic instruments. A precision diagnostic instrument manipulator (DIMS) allows fast removal and precise repositioning of diagnostic instruments. In addition the authors describe several activities to enhance the target chamber availability, such as the target debris mitigation, the use of standard experimental configurations and the development of smart shot operations planning tools

An improved pinhole spatial filter

Lasers generate phase aberrated light that can damage laser glass, frequency conversion crystals, lenses, and mirror coatings and can also reduce extractable energy and power. Spatial pinhole filters can partly eliminate such ``hot spots.`` Problems are that the pinhole closes during the laser pulse and has to be made too large initially. Debris from the pinhole can coat or damage spatial filter lenses. This paper presents a novel design for a more robust pinhole filter. Phase distorted (hot spot) light refracts at grazing incidence by plasma on the wall of a funnel shaped filter resulting in less absorption and debris. Refracted light absorbs at low intensities on the vacuum wall. We present 2D hydrodynamic computer simulations and compare the two types of filters with experiment

The National Ignition Facility: The World's Largest Laser

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192-beam laser facility presently under construction at LLNL. When completed, NIF will be a 1.8-MJ, 500-TW ultraviolet laser system. Its missions are to obtain fusion ignition and to perform high energy density experiments in support of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Four of the NIF beams have been commissioned to demonstrate laser performance including target and beam alignment. During this time, NIF demonstrated on a single-beam basis that it will meet its performance goals and demonstrated its precision and flexibility for pulse shaping, pointing, timing and beam conditioning. It also performed four important experiments for Inertial Confinement Fusion and High Energy Density Science. Presently, the project is installing production hardware to complete the project in 2009 with the goal to begin ignition experiments in 2010. An integrated plan has been developed including the NIF operations, user equipment such as diagnostics and cryogenic target capability, and experiments and calculations to meet this goal

High fluence 1.05 {mu}m performance tests using 20 ns shaped pulses on the Beamlet prototype laser

Beamlet is a single beamline, nearly full scale physics prototype of the 192 beam Nd:Glass laser driver of the National Ignition Facility. It is used to demonstrate laser performance of the NIF multipass amplifier architecture. Initial system characterization tests have all been performed at pulse durations less than 10 ns. Pinhole closure and modulation at the end of long pulses are a significant concern for the operation of NIF. We recently demonstrated the generation, amplification and propagation of high energy pulses temporally shaped to mimic 20 ns long ignition pulse shapes at fluence levels exceeding the nominal NIF design requirements for Inertial Confinement Fusion by Indirect Drive. We also demonstrated the effectiveness of a new conical pinhole design used in the transport spatial filter to mitigate plasma closure effects and increase closure time to exceed the duration of the 20 ns long pulse

Design and performance of the Beamlet laser third harmonic frequency converter

The Beamlet laser is a full-scale, single-aperture scientific prototype of the frequency-tripled Nd:glass laser for the proposed National Ignition Facility. At aperture sizes of 30 cm x 30 cm and 34 cm x 34 cm using potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals of 32 cm x 32 cm and 37 cm x 37 cm, respectively, the authors have obtained up to 8.3 kJ of third harmonic energy at 70%--80% whole beam conversion efficiency