Intracavity adaptive correction of a 10 kW, solid-state, heat-capacity laser
The Solid-State, Heat-Capacity Laser (SSHCL), under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a large aperture (100 cm{sup 2}), confocal, unstable resonator requiring near-diffraction-limited beam quality. There are two primary sources of the aberrations in the system: residual, static aberrations from the fabrication of the optical components and predictable, time-dependent, thermally-induced index gradients within the gain medium. A deformable mirror placed within the cavity is used to correct the aberrations that are sensed externally with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. Although the complexity of intracavity adaptive correction is greater than that of external correction, it enables control of the mode growth within the resonator, resulting in the ability to correct a more aberrated system longer. The overall system design, measurement techniques and correction algorithms are discussed. Experimental results from initial correction of the static aberrations and dynamic correction of the time-dependent aberrations are presented.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15014238
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-PROC-204146
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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