Overview of the Nike KrF Laser Program

John D. Sethian; Robert H. Lehmberg; Carl J. Pawley; Alban V. Deniz; Stephen E. Bodner; Edgar A. McLean; Mark S. Pronko; John Hardgrove; Malcolm W. McGeoch; Kent A. Gerber; Stephen P. Obenschain; John A. Stamper; Thomas H. Lehecka

doi:dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40241

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Overview of the Nike KrF Laser Program

John D. Sethian, Robert H. Lehmberg, Carl J. Pawley, Alban V. Deniz, Stephen E. Bodner, Edgar A. McLean, Mark S. Pronko, John Hardgrove, Malcolm W. McGeoch, Kent A. Gerber, Stephen P. Obenschain, John A. Stamper, Thomas H. Lehecka

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 26 / Number 3P2 / November 1994 / Pages 717-721

Future Inertial Confinement Fusion Facility / Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40241

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Nike is a large angularly multiplexed Krypton-Fluoride (KrF) laser under development at the Naval Research Laboratory. It is designed to explore the technical and physics issues of direct drive laser fusion¹. When completed, Nike will deliver 2–3 kJ of 248 nm light in a 4 nsec pulse with intensities exceeding 2 × 10 ¹⁴W/cm² onto a planar target. Spatially and temporally incoherent light will be used to reduce the ablation pressure nonuniformities to less than 2% in the target focal plane. The Nike laser consists of a commercial oscillator/amplifier front end, an array of gas discharge amplifiers, two electron beam pumped amplifiers (one with a 20 × 20 cm² aperture, the other with a 60 × 60 cm² aperture) and the optics required to relay, encode, and decode the beam. Approximately 90% of the system is operational and currently undergoing tests: the system is complete through the 20 cm amplifier, the 60 cm amplifier has completed all the necessary electron beam/pulsed power tests, and is currently being developed into a laser amplifier, and most of the optics have been installed. It is anticipated that Nike will be fully operational in the fall of 1994.