Advancing High-Repetition-Rate Targeting: Implementation and Performance of FRODO at GALADRIEL

We demonstrate an automated, space-efficient, low-cost, and rep-ratable setup that delivered complex targets to the target chamber center (TCC) and optimized their position along the laser focal axis at GALADRIEL: the General Atomics LAboratory for Developing Rep-rated Instrumentation and Experiments with Lasers. The focal range optimization and directional orientation (FRODO) tool used a continuous-wave laser to create a focal spot on the target and a camera to reimage the spot using a collinear optical path. A tape drive system spooled an aperture tape with periodically spaced two-photon polymerization (2PP) targets through the TCC, and FRODO tracked the patterns and intensity in the reflected light to determine the locations of apertures and targets, deliver the target to the TCC, and then move them to the position of best focus with accuracy smaller than the Rayleigh length of the 1-TW drive laser. Ablation of 2PP foams on the aperture tape produced nearly twice the >1-KeV X-ray energy as shots on plain Cu tape.