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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Laser chain components and rod amplifiers (5 May 1975) (Engineering Materials). [70 drawings]

Miscellaneous ·
OSTI ID:7347767

Drawings are given for a number of components of LLL laser chains such as CYCLOPS, JANUS, and ARGUS that do not fall into distinct categories. These items are mainly large power supplies (e.g., 20 kV, 100 kVA), capacitor banks, associated pulse-forming and triggering electronics, and miscellaneous control electronics. This category does not include any oscillators, amplifiers, Faraday rotators, or spatial filters. Drawings are also given for rod amplifiers, i.e., devices which use liquid-cooled flash-pumped Nd:glass laser rods to amplify laser pulses. They provide high, uniform gain across their clear apertures (which range up to 40 mm) and much higher efficiency and beam cleanliness (at much lower cost) than would disk amplifiers of equivalent aperture and gain. Their only disadvantage is that self-focusing is somewhat worse; however, they are intended for use with beams of relatively low power density. The linear flashlamps utilized provide superior maintainability in comparison to helical flashlamps.

Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
OSTI ID:
7347767
Report Number(s):
CAPE-2472
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English