Generation of ultrabright beams in high energy Nd:glass and KrF laser systems

The development of ultrabright lasers is progressing rapidly particularly in the direction of table-top-terawatt systems operating at high pulse repetition rate with relatively low pulse energy. The highest pulse energies and highest absolute powers are being generated by the adaptation of larger-scale high energy laser systems operating in single pulse mode. The maximum focused intensity from either type of laser is determined by the beam brightness B which can be expressed in units of Watts cm where P is the power, lambda the wavelength and S the Strehl ratio, quantifying the ratio of brightness in a beam with less than diffraction limited quality to that in a diffraction limited beam

Oscillator and system development on the VULCAN glass laser system for the Plasma Beat-wave program

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:8053.4153(RAL--90-011) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

VULCAN A versitile high power glass laser user facility

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:8053.4153(RAL--89-121) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Breakthrough at the NIF paves the way to inertial fusion energy

In August 2021, at the National Ignition Facility of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA, a 1.35 MJ fusion yield was obtained. It is a demonstration of the validity of the Inertial Confinement Fusion approach to achieve energy-efficient thermonuclear fusion in the laboratory. It is a historical milestone that the scientific community has achieved after decades of efforts

Spatial and temporal coherence measurements of harmonics of a 1053 nm, 2.5 ps laser interacting with solid surfaces

We present measurements of the spatial and temporal coherence lengths of the 4th harmonic of a 1053 nm, 2.5 ps laser generated during high intensity (up to 10(19) wcm(-2)) interactions with a solid target. Coherence lengths were measured by use of a Young's double slit interferometer. The effective source size, as defined by the Van Cittert-Zernicke theorem, was found to be 10 similar to 12 mu m, and the coherence time was observed to be in the range 0.02 similar to 0.4 ps