Nova Laser System at Ultra High Fluence Levels

The Nova experimental facility consists of a ten arm laser system and five experimental stations and was completed in December 1984. Two of these stations are used for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments and the other three are dedicated to doing large aperture (30 to 74 cm) laser experiments. The laser system is deployed in a master oscillator-power amplifier architecture and uses Nd: phosphate glass for the active medium. The fundamental wavelength of the system is 1.05 microns. Frequency converters constructed from potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystals are located at the end of each of the ten arms and are used to produce high power frequency doubled (0.53 microns) and tripled (0.35 microns) beams for either ICF or laser experiments. Thus, the Nova laser system can produce high power beams with wavelengths ranging from the infrared to the ultraviolet