Alignment and diagnostics of the National Ignition Facility laser system

Robert D. Boyd; Erlan S. Bliss; Steven J. Boege; Robert D. Demaret; Mark Feldman; Alan J. Gates; Fred R. Holdener; J. Hollis; Carl F. Knopp; Tom J. McCarville; Victoria J. Miller-Kamm; W. E. Rivera; J. Thaddeus Salmon; J. R. Severyn; Calvin E. Thompson; David Yu-Hsi Wang; Richard A. Zacharias

doi:10.1117/12.369229

11 November 1999 Alignment and diagnostics of the National Ignition Facility laser system

Robert D. Boyd, Erlan S. Bliss, Steven J. Boege, Robert D. Demaret, Mark Feldman, Alan J. Gates, Fred R. Holdener, J. Hollis, Carl F. Knopp, Tom J. McCarville, Victoria J. Miller-Kamm, W. E. Rivera, J. Thaddeus Salmon, J. R. Severyn, Calvin E. Thompson, David Yu-Hsi Wang, Richard A. Zacharias

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Proceedings Volume 3782, Optical Manufacturing and Testing III; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.369229
Event: SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1999, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

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.

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Robert D. Boyd, Erlan S. Bliss, Steven J. Boege, Robert D. Demaret, Mark Feldman, Alan J. Gates, Fred R. Holdener, J. Hollis, Carl F. Knopp, Tom J. McCarville, Victoria J. Miller-Kamm, W. E. Rivera, J. Thaddeus Salmon, J. R. Severyn, Calvin E. Thompson, David Yu-Hsi Wang, and Richard A. Zacharias "Alignment and diagnostics of the National Ignition Facility laser system", Proc. SPIE 3782, Optical Manufacturing and Testing III, (11 November 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.369229

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