KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, National Ignition Facility, Control systems, Actuators, Sensors, Mirrors, High power lasers, Computing systems, Coating, Deformable mirrors
The use of lasers as the driver for inertial confinement fusion and weapons physics experiments is based on their ability to produce high-energy short pulses in a beam with low divergence. Indeed, the focusability of high quality laser beams far exceeds alternate technologies and is a major factor in the rationale for building high power lasers for such applications. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a large, 192-beam, high-power laser facility under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for fusion and weapons physics experiments. Its uncorrected minimum focal spot size is limited by laser system aberrations. The NIF includes a Wavefront Control System to correct these aberrations to yield a focal spot small enough for its applications. Sources of aberrations to be corrected include prompt pump-induced distortions in the laser amplifiers, previous-shot thermal distortions, beam off-axis effects, and gravity, mounting, and coating-induced optic distortions. Aberrations from gas density variations and optic-manufacturing figure errors are also partially corrected. This paper provides an overview of the NIF Wavefront Control System and describes the target spot size performance improvement it affords. It describes provisions made to accommodate the NIF's high fluence (laser beam and flashlamp), large wavefront correction range, wavefront temporal bandwidth, temperature and humidity variations, cleanliness requirements, and exception handling requirements (e.g. wavefront out-of-limits conditions).
The NIF laser system will be capable of delivering 1.8 MJ of 351 nm energy in 192 beams. Diagnostics instruments must measure beam energy, power vs. time, wavefront quality, and beam intensity proifle to characterize laser performance. Alignment and beam diagnostics are also used to set the laser up for the high power shots and to isolate problems when performance is less than expected. Alignment and beam diagnostics are multiplexed to keep the costs under control. At the front-end the beam is aligned and diagnosed in an input sensor package. The output 1053 nm beam is sampled by collecting a 0.1% reflection from an output beam sampler and directing it to the output sensor package (OSP). The OSP also gets samples from final focus lens reflection and samples from the transport spatial filter pinhole plane. The output 351 nm energy is measured by a calorimeter collecting the signal from an off-axis diffractive beam-sampler. Detailed information on the focused beam in the high-energy target focal plane region is gathered in the precision diagnostics. This paper describes the design of the alignment and diagnostics on the NIF laser system.
KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, National Ignition Facility, Control systems, Sensors, Actuators, Deformable mirrors, Mirrors, Wavefront sensors, Control systems design, Near field optics
A wavefront control system will be employed on NIF to correct beam aberrations that otherwise would limit the minimum target focal spot size. For most applications, NIF requires a focal spot that is a few times the diffraction limit. Sources of aberrations that must be corrected include prompt pump-induced distortions in the laser slabs, thermal distortions in the laser slabs from previous shots, manufacturing figure errors in the optics, beam off-axis effects, gas density variations, and gravity, mounting, and coating-induced optic distortions.
Erlan Bliss, Steven Boege, Robert Boyd, Donald Davis, Robert Demaret, Mark Feldman, Alan Gates, Fred Holdener, Carl Knopp, R. Kyker, C. Lauman, Tom McCarville, John Miller, Victoria Miller-Kamm, W. Rivera, J. Thaddeus Salmon, J. Severyn, Sang Sheem, Stan Thomas, Calvin Thompson, David Wang, M. Yoeman, Richard Zacharias, Clifford Chocol, J. Hollis, Daniel Whitaker, J. Brucker, L. Bronisz, T. Sheridan
Earlier papers have described approaches to NIF alignment and laser diagnostics tasks. Now, detailed design of alignment and diagnostic systems for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser is in its last year. Specifications are more detailed, additional analyses have been completed, Pro- E models have been developed, and prototypes of specific items have been built. In this paper we update top level concepts, illustrate specific areas of progress, and show design implementations as represented by prototype hardware. The alignment light source network has been fully defined. It utilizes an optimized number of lasers combined with fiber optic distribution to provide the chain alignment beams, system centering references, final spatial filter pinhole references, target alignment beams, and wavefront reference beams. The input and output sensor are being prototyped. They are located respectively in the front end just before beam injection into the full aperture chain and at the transport spatial filter, where the full energy infrared beam leaves the laser. The modularity of the input sensor is improved, and each output sensor mechanical package now incorporates instrumentation for four beams.
KEYWORDS: Wavefronts, National Ignition Facility, Control systems, Wavefront sensors, Control systems design, Laser applications, Optics manufacturing, Computing systems, Sensors, Interferometers
The use of lasers as the driver for inertial confinement fusion experiments and weapons physics applications is based on their ability to produce high-energy short pulses in a beam with low divergence. Indeed, the focusability of high quality laser beams far exceeds alternate technologies and is a major factor in the rationale for building lasers for such applications The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a large 192-beam laser facility now under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for fusion and weapons physics experiments. Its uncorrected focal spot minimum size is limited by wavefront aberrations in the laser system. NIF is designed with a wavefront control system to correct these aberrations to yield a focal spot that is small enough for NIF' s intended applications. Sources of aberrations to be corrected include prompt pump-induced distortions in the laser amplifiers, thermal distortions in the amplifiers from previous shots, beam off-axis effects, and gravity, mounting, and coating-induced optic distortions. Aberrations from gas density variations and manufacturing figure errors in the optics are also partially corrected by the wavefront control system. The NIF wavefront control system consists of five subsystems for each of the 192 beams: 1) a deformable mirror, 2) a wavefront sensor, 3) a computer controller, 4) a wavefront reference system, and 5) a rapid reconfiguration system to allow the wavefront control system to operate to within one second of the laser shot. The system includes the capability for in situ calibrations and operates in closed loop prior to the shot. Shot wavefront data is recorded. This paper describes the function, realization, and performance of each wavefront control subsystem. Subsystem performance will be characterized by computer models and by test results. The focal spot improvement in the NIF laser system effected by the wavefront control system will be characterized through computer models. The sensitivity of the target focal spot to various aberration sources will be presented. Analyses to optimize the wavefront control system will also be presented.
Herbert Friedman, Jeffrey Cooke, Pamela Danforth, Gaylen Erbert, Mark Feldman, Donald Gavel, Sherman Jenkins, Holger Jones, Vernon Kanz, Thomas Kuklo, Michael Newman, Edward Pierce, Robert Presta, J. Thaddeus Salmon, Gary Thompson, Jen Nan Wong
A laser system to generate sodium-layer guide stars has been designed, built and delivered to the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The system uses frequency doubled YAG lasers to pump liquid dye lasers and produces 20 W of average power. The design and performance result of this laser system are presented.
Using adaptive optics we have obtained nearly diffraction-limited 5 kJ, 3 nsec output pulses at 1.053 micrometer from the Beamlet demonstration system for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The peak Strehl ratio was improved from 0.009 to 0.50, as estimated from measured wavefront errors. We have also measured the relaxation of the thermally induced aberrations in the main beam line over a period of 4.5 hours. Peak-to-valley aberrations range from 6.8 waves at 1.053 micrometer within 30 minutes after a full system shot to 3.9 waves after 4.5 hours. The adaptive optics system must have enough range to correct accumulated thermal aberrations from several shots in addition to the immediate shot-induced error. Accumulated wavefront errors in the beam line will affect both the design of the adaptive optics system for NIF and the performance of that system.
Timely and repeatable alignment of the 192 beam National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser will require an automatic system. Demanding accuracy requirements must be met with high reliability at low cost while minimizing the turn-around time between shots. We describe an approach for internally self-consistent alignment of the mirrors in the laser chains using a network of local light sources that serve as near field and far field alignment references. It incorporates a minimum number of alignment lasers, handles many beams in parallel, and utilizes simple control algorithms.
We are incorporating a novel self-referencing Mach-Zehnder interferometer into a large scale laser system as a
real time, interactive diagnostic tool for wavefront measurement. The instrument is capable of absolute
wavefront measurements accurate to better than XIlOpv over a wavelength range > 300 nm without
readjustment of the optical components. This performance is achieved through the design of both refractive
optics and a catadioptric collimator to achromatize the Mach-Zehnder reference arm. Other features include
polarization insensitivity through the use of low angles of incidence on all beamsplitters as well as an equal path
length configuration that allows measurement of either broad-band or closely spaced laser-line sources.
Instrument accuracy is periodically monitored in place by means of a thermally and mechanically stable
wavefront reference source that is calibrated off-line with a phase conjugate interferometer. Video
interferograms are analyzed using Fourier transform techniques on a computer that includes a dedicated array
processor. Computer and video networks maintain distributed interferometers under the control of a single
analysis computer with multiple user access.
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