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Cleanliness for the NIF 1ω Laser Amplifiers

Journal Article · · Fusion Science and Technology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.13182/FST14-861· OSTI ID:1256437
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
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During the years before the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system, a set of generally accepted cleaning procedures had been developed for the large 1ω amplifiers of an inertial confinement fusion laser, and up until 1999 similar procedures were planned for NIF. Several parallel sets of test results were obtained from 1992 to 1999 for large amplifiers using these accepted cleaning procedures in the Beamlet physics test bed and in the Amplifier Module Prototype Laboratory (AMPLAB), a four-slab-high prototype large amplifier structure. Both of these showed damage to their slab surfaces that, if projected to operating conditions for NIF, would lead to higher than acceptable slab-refurbishment rates. Finally, this study tracks the search for the smoking gun origin of this damage and describes the solution employed in NIF for avoiding flashlamp-induced aerosol damage to its 1ω amplifier slabs.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1256437
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--658065
Journal Information:
Fusion Science and Technology, Journal Name: Fusion Science and Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 69; ISSN 1536-1055
Publisher:
American Nuclear SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (8)

Stochastic Problems in Physics and Astronomy journal January 1943
Light propagation through large laser systems journal September 1981
Advances in cleaning metal and glass surfaces to micron‐level cleanliness journal March 1978
Cleanliness improvements of National Ignition Facility amplifiers as compared to previous large-scale lasers journal December 2004
Achieving and maintaining cleanliness in NIF amplifiers
  • Stowers, Irving F.; Horvath, John A.; Menapace, Joseph A.
  • Third International Conference on Solid State Lasers for Application to Inertial Confinement Fusion, SPIE Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1117/12.354175
conference July 1999
Hot images from obscurations journal January 1993
Rear-surface laser damage on 355-nm silica optics owing to Fresnel diffraction on front-surface contamination particles journal January 2000
Clean Construction Protocol for the National Ignition Facility Beampath and Utilities journal September 2003

Cited By (3)

Cleaning State of the Loop Case for Optical Crystal Module in Final Optics Assembly journal November 2018
Characteristics of Local Modulation Beam Propagating through Spatial Filter System journal January 2018
Investigation of a low-stress and low-contamination clamping method for large-aperture optics journal October 2019

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Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
flashlamp-induced aerosols
laser amplifier environment
laser slab damage