Summary of Stimulated Raman Scattering Experiments in the Nova Air-Path and Projected Nova and Nova II System Performance Limits

The authors present the results of high intensity beam propagation experiments conducted with the Nova laser system to investigate the occurrence of stimulated rotational Raman scattering (SRRS) from atmospheric nitrogen in the beam path. Enclosed is a preprint entitled ''Stimulated Rotational Raman Scattering in Nitrogen in Long Air Paths'' that they have published in the November issue of Optics Letters. The physics issues associated with SRRS are discussed at length in the preprint. The small signal steady-state SRRS gain coefficient that they determined from threshold measurements is in excellent agreement with recent direct SRRS gain measurements by Bischel, et al., at SRI, and is in good agreement with early gain estimates from Averbakh, et al., in the Soviet Union. Consequently, they have a high degree of confidence in the gain coefficient. In addition, threshold SRRS experiments on the long air-path Nova II system are in substantial agreement with the earlier Nova experiments. Nova and Nova II system performance limitations were not critically addressed in the publication so they shall discuss these issues in this paper

Modeling for deformable mirrors and the adaptive optics optimization program

We discuss aspects of adaptive optics optimization for large fusion laser systems such as the 192-arm National Ignition Facility (NIF) at LLNL. By way of example, we considered the discrete actuator deformable mirror and Hartmann sensor system used on the Beamlet laser. Beamlet is a single-aperture prototype of the 11-0-5 slab amplifier design for NIF, and so we expect similar optical distortion levels and deformable mirror correction requirements. We are now in the process of developing a numerically efficient object oriented C++ language implementation of our adaptive optics and wavefront sensor code, but this code is not yet operational. Results are based instead on the prototype algorithms, coded-up in an interpreted array processing computer language

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

Modeling characterization of the National Ignition Facility focal spot

No abstract available

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

Recent performance results of the National Ignition Facility Beamlet demonstration project

The laser driver for the National Ignition Facility will be a departure from previous inertial confinement fusion laser architecture of a master oscillator single pass power amplifier (MOPA) design. The laser will use multi-segment Nd:Glass amplifiers in a multipass cavity arrangement, which can be assembled into compact and cost effective arrays to deliver the required multi- megajoule energy to target. A single beam physics prototype, the Beamlet, has been in operation for over two years and has demonstrated the feasibility of this architecture. We present a short review of Beamlet`s performance and limitations based on beam quality both at its fundamental and frequency converted wavelengths of 1.053 and 0.351 {mu}m

Limitation on Prepulse Level for Cone-Guided Fast-Ignition Inertial Confinement Fusion

The viability of fast-ignition (FI) inertial confinement fusion hinges on the efficient transfer of laser energy to the compressed fuel via multi-MeV electrons. Preformed plasma due to the laser prepulse strongly influences ultraintense laser plasma interactions and hot electron generation in the hollow cone of an FI target. We induced a prepulse and consequent preplasma in copper cone targets and measured the energy deposition zone of the main pulse by imaging the emitted K_α radiation. Simulation of the radiation hydrodynamics of the preplasma and particle in cell modeling of the main pulse interaction agree well with the measured deposition zones and provide an insight into the energy deposition mechanism and electron distribution. It was demonstrated that a under these conditions a 100 mJ prepulse eliminates the forward going component of ∼2–4 MeV electrons

Integrated operations of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) optical pulse generation development system

We describe the Optical Pulse Generation (OPG) testbed, which is the integration of the MOR and Preamplifier Development Laboratories. We use this OPG testbed to develop and demonstrate the overall capabilites of the NIF laser system front end. We will present the measured energy and power output, temporal and spatial pulse shaping capability, FM bandwidth and dispersion for beam smoothing, and measurements of the pulse-to-pulse power variation of the OPG system and compare these results with the required system performance specifications. We will discuss the models that are used to predict the system performance and how the OPG output requirements flowdown to the subordinate subsystems within the OPG system