The National Ignition Facility: the world's largest optics and laser system

Edward I. Moses; John H. Campbell; Christopher J. Stolz; Craig R. Wuest

doi:10.1117/12.500351

18 June 2003 The National Ignition Facility: the world's largest optics and laser system

Edward I. Moses, John H. Campbell, Christopher J. Stolz, Craig R. Wuest

Proceedings Volume 5001, Optical Engineering at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.500351
Event: High-Power Lasers and Applications, 2003, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

The National Ignition Facility, a center for the study of high energy density plasma physics and fusion energy ignition, is currently under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The heart of the NIF is a frequency tripled, flashlamp-pumped Nd:glass laser system comprised of 192 independent laser beams. The laser system is capable of gen-erating output energies of 1.8MJ at 351nm and at peak powers of 500 TW in a flexible temporal pulse format. A descrip-tion of the NIF laser system and its major components is presented. We also discuss the manufacture of nearly 7500 pre-cision large optics required by the NIF including data on the manufactured optical quality vs. specification. In addition, we present results from an on-going program to improve the operational lifetime of optics exposed to high fluence in the 351-nm section of the laser.

Citation Download Citation

Edward I. Moses, John H. Campbell, Christopher J. Stolz, and Craig R. Wuest "The National Ignition Facility: the world's largest optics and laser system", Proc. SPIE 5001, Optical Engineering at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, (18 June 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.500351

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