A novel cleanliness control method for disk amplifiers

Yangshuai Li,Bingyan Wang,Panzheng Zhang,Jianqiang Zhu,Yanfeng Zhang,Weixin Ma,Shenlei Zhou,Yanli Zhang

doi:10.1017/hpl.2020.39

Abstract

Abstract As the key part for energy amplification of high-power laser systems, disk amplifiers must work in an extremely clean environment. Different from the traditional cleanliness control scheme of active intake and passive exhaust (AIPE), a new method of active exhaust and passive intake (AEPI) is proposed in this paper. Combined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology, through the optimization design of the sizes, shapes, and locations of different outlets and inlets, the turbulence that is unfavorable to cleanliness control is effectively avoided in the disk amplifier cavity during the process of AEPI. Finally, the cleanliness control of the cavity of the disk amplifier can be realized just by once exhaust. Meanwhile, the micro negative pressure environment in the amplifier cavity produced during the exhaust process reduces the requirement for sealing. This method is simple, time saving, gas saving, efficient, and safe. It is also suitable for the cleanliness control of similar amplifiers.

Highlights

As the key part for energy amplification of high-power laser systems, disk amplifiers are responsible for more than 99.9% of energy amplification
Different from the traditional cleanliness control method of active intake + passive exhaust’ (AIPE) (Figure 1(a)), the AEPI is a combination of active exhaust and passive intake (Figure 1(b))
Outlets are usually connected to a negative pressure device and inlets are connected to atmospheric gas

Summary

Introduction

As the key part for energy amplification of high-power laser systems, disk amplifiers are responsible for more than 99.9% of energy amplification. The traditional cleanliness control method of the disk amplifiers is ‘active intake + passive exhaust’ (AIPE)[4,5,6,7,8,9] This method uses clean air or nitrogen as a clean purge gas at a certain pressure. Combined with the optimization design of inlets and outlets, the negative pressure pumping (exhaust) actively guides the direction of gas flow through the amplifier cavity. This greatly reduces the probability of turbulence generation and improves the clean purge efficiency. Compared with the traditional active intake of high pressure and passive exhaust, the requirement for sealing of the amplifier cavity in the AEPI method is lower. With the presence of negative pressure, the amplifier is better sealed (self-pressing principle)

Methods

Results

Conclusion