Cleanliness for the NIF 1ω Laser Amplifiers

Delay Effect in Laser Amplifiers

In the Stanford Free Electron Laser it is necessary t o desynchronize the electron pulses from the accelerator with the light pulses. This effect is a major complication in the data analysis of the FEL. In this presentation, the desynchronism effect is considered for a Laser amplifier. The equations are substantially simpler than the FEL, and most of the results can be obtained analytically. Bo...

Modulation instability in high power laser amplifiers.

The modulation instability (MI) is one of the main factors responsible for the degradation of beam quality in high-power laser systems. The so-called B-integral restriction is commonly used as the criteria for MI control in passive optics devices. For amplifiers the adiabatic model, assuming locally the Bespalov-Talanov expression for MI growth, is commonly used to estimate the destructive impa...

Functional Damage Thresholds of Hafnia/Silica Coating Designs for the NIF Laser

LLE Review, Volume 88 177 Introduction LLE’s Optical Manufacturing Group (OMAN) has been tasked with coating several types of optics for use on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system. Until recently, the standard quality assurance technique for coating large optics has been to process a smaller “witness” optic along with the large optic.Tests and inspections performed on the witness ...

Spatial filters for high-peak-power multistage laser amplifiers.

We describe spatial filters used in a Nd:glass laser with an output pulse energy up to 300 J and a pulse duration of 1 ns. This laser is designed for pumping of a chirped-pulse optical parametric amplifier. We present data required to choose the shape and diameter of a spatial filter lens, taking into account aberrations caused by spherical surfaces. Calculation of the optimal pinhole diameter ...

Field Solutions for Bidirectional High-Gain Laser Amplifiers and Oscillators