Design and performance of the beamlet amplifiers
In future laser systems, such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF), multi-segment amplifiers (MSAs) will be used to amplify the laser beam to the required levels. As a prototype of such a laser architecture, the authors have designed, built, and tested flash-lamp-pumped, Nd:Glass, Brewster-angle slab MSAs for the Beamlet project. In this article, they review the fundamentals of Nd:Glass amplifiers, describe the MSA geometry, discuss parameters that are important in amplifier design, and present our results on the characterization of the Beamlet MSAs. In particular, gain and beam steering measurements show that the Beamlet amplifiers meet all optical performance specifications and perform close to model predictions.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 376936
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-LR-105820-95; ON: DE96013181; TRN: 96:004685-0002
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Jun 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Inertial confinement fusion. 1995 ICF annual report, October 1994--September 1995; PB: 407 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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