Overview of progress in construction and testing of the laser systems of ELI-Beamlines, accomplished since 2015, is presented. Good progress has been achieved in construction of all four lasers based largely on the technology of diode-pumped solid state lasers (DPSSL). The first part of the L1 laser, designed to provide 200 mJ <15 fs pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate, is up and running. The L2 is a development line employing a 10 J / 10 Hz cryogenic gas-cooled pump laser which has recently been equipped with an advanced cryogenic engine. Operation of the L3-HAPLS system, using a gas-cooled DPSSL pump laser and a Ti:sapphire broadband amplifier, was recently demonstrated at 16 J / 28 fs, at 3.33 Hz rep rate. Finally, the 5 Hz OPCPA front end of the L4 kJ laser is up running and amplification in the Nd:glass large-aperture power amplifiers was demonstrated.
The National Ignition Facility has recently achieved the milestone of delivering over
1.8 MJ and 500 TW of 351 nm laser energy and power on target, which required average fluences up to 9 J/cm2 (3 ns equivalent) in the final optics system. Commercial fused silica laser-grade UV optics typically have a maximum
operating threshold of 5 J/cm2. We have developed an optics recycling process which enables NIF to operate above the laser damage initiation and growth thresholds. We previously reported a method to mitigate laser damage with laser
ablation of the damage site to leave benign cone shaped pits. We have since developed a production facility with four
mitigation systems capable of performing the mitigation protocols on full-sized (430 mm) optics in volume production.
We have successfully repaired over 700 NIF optics (unique serial numbers), some of which have been recycled as many
as 11 times. We describe the mitigation systems, the optics recycle loop process, and optics recycle production data.
We report on the performance characterization and issues associated with using Fibre Channel (FC) over a highly turbulent free-space optical (FSO) link. Fibre Channel is a storage area network standard that provides high throughput with low overhead. Extending FC to FSO links would simplify data transfer from existing high-bandwidth sensors such as synthetic aperture radars and hyperspectral imagers. We measured the behavior of FC protocol at 1 Gbps in the presence of synthetic link dropouts that are typical of turbulent FSO links. Results show that an average bit error rate of less than 2E-8 is mandatory for adequate throughput. More importantly, 10 ns dropouts at a 2 Hz rate were sufficient to cause long (25 s) timeouts in the data transfer. Although no data was lost, this behavior is likely to be objectionable for most applications. Prospects for improvements in hardware and software will be discussed.
We report on the performance characterization and issues associated with using Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) over a highly turbulent 1.3 km air-optic lasercom links. Commercial GigE hardware is a cost-effective and scalable physical layer standard that can be applied to air-optic communications. We demonstrate a simple GigE hardware interface to a single-mode fiber-coupled, 1550 nm, WDM air-optic transceiver. TCP/IP serves as a robust and universal foundation protocol that has some tolerance of data loss due to atmospheric fading. Challenges include establishing and maintaining a connection with acceptable throughput under poor propagation conditions. The most useful link performance diagnostic is shown to be scintillation index, where a value of 0.2 is the maximum permissible for adequate GigE throughput. Maximum GigE throughput observed was 49.7% of that obtained with a fiber jumper when scintillation index is 0.1. Shortcomings in conventional measurements such as bit error rate are apparent. Prospects for forward error correction and other link enhancements will be discussed.
Free space optical communications (FSO) are beginning to provide attractive alternatives to fiber-based solutions in many situations. Currently, a handful of companies provide fiberless alternatives especially aimed at corporate intranet and sporting event video. These solutions are geared toward solving the 'last mile' connectivity issues. There exists a potential need to extend this pathlength to distances much greater than a 1 km, particularly for government and military applications. For cases of long distance optical propagation, atmospheric turbulence will ultimately limit the maximum achievable data rate. In this paper, we propose a method of improved signal quality through the use of adaptive optics. In particular, we show work in progress toward a high-speed, small footprint Adaptive Optics system for horizontal and slant path laser communications. Such a system relies heavily on recent progress in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) deformable mirrors as well as improved communication and computational components.
Horizontal path laser communications are beginning to provide attractive alternatives for high-speed optical communications. In particular, companies are beginning to sell fiberless alternatives for intranet and sporting event video. These applications are primarily aimed at short distance applications (on the order of 1 km pathlength). There exists a potential need to extend this pathlength to distances much greater than a 1km. For cases of long distance optical propagation, atmospheric turbulence will ultimately limit the maximum achievable data rate. In this paper, we propose a method of improved signal quality through the use of adaptive optics. In particular, we show work in progress toward a high-speed, small footprint Adaptive Optics system for horizontal path laser communications. Such a system relies heavily on recent progress in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) deformable mirrors as well as improved communication and computational components. In this paper we detail two Adaptive Optics approaches for improved through-put, the first is the compensated receiver (the traditional Adaptive Optics approach), the second is the compensated transmitter/receiver. The second approach allows for correction of the optical wavefront before transmission from the transmitter and prior to detection at the receiver.
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