Characterization of Freestanding Polymer Films for Application in 351-nm, High-Peak-Power Laser Systems

38 LLE Review, Volume 73 A major roadblock to rapid progress in laser fusion is the enormous price of the necessary experimental facilities. Currently under planning or nearing construction are 40-cm-clearaperture (per beam line), 200-or-more-channel, glass-laser systems that will each cost in excess of U.S. $109 in pursuit of laser-fusion research.1 A sizable portion of this price bears witness to the costs of optical materials and of the precision manufacturing methods for treating these materials at aperture scales that, up to now, were the domain of astronomers. There is strong incentive for developing lower-cost, high-throughput manufacturing technology and materials engineering, yielding devices that meet all the performance challenges typically demanded by such lasers.