Electro-optical deflectors as a method of beam smoothing for Inertial Confinement Fusion

The electro-optic deflector is analyzed and compared to smoothing by spectral dispersion for efficacy as a beam smoothing method for ICF. It is found that the electro-optic deflector is inherently somewhat less efficient when compared either on the basis of equal peak phase modulation or equal generated bandwidth

Improved beam smoothing with SSD using generalized phase modulation

The smoothing of the spatial illumination of an inertial confinement fusion target is examined by its spatial frequency content. It is found that the smoothing by spectral dispersion method, although efficient for glass lasers, can yield poor smoothing at low spatial frequency. The dependence of the smoothed spatial spectrum on the characteristics of phase modulation and dispersion is examined for both sinusoidal and more general phase modulation. It is shown that smoothing with non-sinusoidal phase modulation can result in spatial spectra which are substantially identical to that obtained with the induced spatial incoherence or similar method where random phase plates are present in both methods and identical beam divergence is assumed

The influence of phase-modulation on femtosecond time-resolved coherent Raman spectroscopy

The influence of phase-modulation on femtosecond time-resolved coherent Raman scattering is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The coherent Raman signal taken as a function of the spectral position shows unexpected temporal oscillations close to time zero. A theoretical analysis of the coherent Raman scattering process indicates that the femtosecond light pulses are amplitude and phase modulated. The pulses are asymmetric in time with more slowly decaying trailing wings. The phase of the pulse amplitude contains quadratic and higher-order contributions

Impact of beam smoothing method on direct drive target performance for the NIF

The impact of smoothing method on the performance of a direct drive target is modeled and examined in terms of its 1-mode spectrum. In particular, two classes of smoothing methods are compared, smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) and the induced spatial incoherence (ISI) method. It is found that SSD using sinusoidal phase modulation (FM) results in poor smoothing at low 1-modes and therefore inferior target performance at both peak velocity and ignition. This disparity is most notable if the effective imprinting integration time of the target is small. However, using SSD with more generalized phase modulation can result in smoothing at low l-modes which is identical to that obtained with ISI. For either smoothing method, the calculations indicate that at peak velocity the surface perturbations are about 100 times larger than that which leads to nonlinear hydrodynamics. Modeling of the hydrodynamic nonlinearity shows that saturation can reduce the amplified nonuniformities to the level required to achieve ignition for either smoothing method. The low l- mode behavior at ignition is found to be strongly dependent on the induced divergence of the smoothing method. For the NIF parameters the target performance asymptotes for smoothing divergence larger than {approximately}100 {mu}rad

Impact of beam smoothing method on direct drive target performance for the NIF

The impact of smoothing method on the performance of a direct drive target is modeled and examined in terms of its l-mode spectrum. In particular, two classes of smoothing methods are compared, smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) and the induced spatial incoherence (ISI) method. It is found that SSD using sinusoidal phase modulation (FM) results in poor smoothing at low l-modes and therefore inferior target performance at both peak velocity and ignition. Modeling of the hydrodynamic nonlinearity shows that saturation tends to reduce the difference between target performance for the smoothing methods considered. However, using SSD with more generalized phase modulation results in a smoothed spatial spectrum, and therefore target performance, which is identical to that obtained with the ISI or similar method where random phase plates are present in both methods and identical beam divergence is assumed

Performance of smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) with frequency conversion on the Beamlet Laser for the National Ignition Facility

Simulations and ongoing measurements indicate that SSD results in small degradation to the near field beam quality. The measured effect of SSD bandwidth on conversion to the third harmonic and smoothing of the target illumination will also be described

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

Modulation Instability of Ultrashort Pulses in Quadratic Nonlinear Media beyond the Slowly Varying Envelope Approximation

We report a modulational instability (MI) analysis of a mathematical model appropriate for ultrashort pulses in cascaded quadratic-cubic nonlinear media beyond the so-called slowly varying envelope approximation. Theoretically predicted MI properties are found to be in good agreement with numerical simulation. The study shows the possibility of controlling the generation of MI and formation of solitons in a cascaded quadratic-cubic media in the few cycle regimes. We also find that stable propagation of soliton-like few-cycle pulses in the medium is subject to the fulfilment of the modulation instability criteria

KELT-25 b and KELT-26 b: A Hot Jupiter and a Substellar Companion Transiting Young A Stars Observed by TESS

We present the discoveries of KELT-25 b (TIC 65412605, TOI-626.01) and KELT-26 b (TIC 160708862, TOI-1337.01), two transiting companions orbiting relatively bright, early A stars. The transit signals were initially detected by the KELT survey and subsequently confirmed by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) photometry. KELT-25 b is on a 4.40 day orbit around the V = 9.66 star CD-24 5016 (Teff=8280-180+440 K, M ∗ = 2.18-0.11+0.12 M o˙), while KELT-26 b is on a 3.34 day orbit around the V = 9.95 star HD 134004 (Teff = 8640-240+500 K, M ∗ = 1.93-0.16+0.14 M o˙), which is likely an Am star. We have confirmed the substellar nature of both companions through detailed characterization of each system using ground-based and TESS photometry, radial velocity measurements, Doppler tomography, and high-resolution imaging. For KELT-25, we determine a companion radius of R P = 1.64-0.043+0.039 R J and a 3σ upper limit on the companion's mass of ∼64 M J. For KELT-26 b, we infer a planetary mass and radius of M P = 1.41-0.51+0.43MJ and R P = 1.94-0.058+0.060 R J. From Doppler tomographic observations, we find KELT-26 b to reside in a highly misaligned orbit. This conclusion is weakly corroborated by a subtle asymmetry in the transit light curve from the TESS data. KELT-25 b appears to be in a well-aligned, prograde orbit, and the system is likely a member of the cluster Theia 449

Two dimensional beam smoothing by spectral dispersion for direct drive inertial confinement fusion

Two dimensional smoothing by spectral dispersion is analyzed by using diffraction theory calculations. It is shown that by using standard frequency modulated light one can obtain bandwidth limited smoothing over integration times relevant to inertial confinement fusion (about 1 nsec) with modest induced beam divergence. At longer integration times one can obtain bandwidth limited smoothing by increasing the divergence and/or by using more advanced phase modulation methods