18 research outputs found
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Status of the National Ignition Facility project
The ultimate goal of worldwide research in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is to develop fusion as an inexhaustible, economic, environmentally safe source of electric power. Following nearly thirty years of laboratory and underground fusion experiments, the next step toward this goal is to demonstrate ignition and propagating burn of fusion fuel in the laboratory. The National Ignition Facility(NIF) Project is being constructed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), for just this purpose. NIF will use advanced Nd-glass laser technology to deliver 1.8 MJ of 0.35-um laser light in a shaped pulse, several nanoseconds in duration, achieving a peak power of 500 TW. A national community of U.S. laboratories is participating in this project, now in its final design phase. Franceand the United Kingdom are collaborating on development of required technology under bilateral agreements with the US. This paper presents thestatus of the laser design and development of its principal components and optical elements
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OMEGA: a short-wavelength laser for fusion experiments
The OMEGA, Nd:glass laser facility was constructed for the purpose of investigating the feasibility of direct-drive laser fusion. With 24 beams producing a total energy of 4 kJ or a peak power of 12 TW, OMEGA is capable of nearly uniform illumination of spherical targets. Six of the OMEGA beams have recently been converted to short-wavelength operation (351 nm). In this paper, we discuss details of the system design and performance, with particular emphasis on the frequency-conversion system and multi-wavelength diagnostic system