A simple operation of a plasma-electrode pockel’s cell for the laser megajoules

Abstract

We report on a simple way to operate plasma-electrode pockel’s cells (PEPC), which are used as large-aperture optical switches in laser drivers for inertial-confinement fusion facilities. In the basic operation of a PEPC, one needs to produce a plasma in each of two gas-filled cells placed on opposite sides of an appropriate crystal plate. Between the resulting highly conductive electrodes, a high-voltage pulse is applied to produce a uniform electric field in the crystal, which then undergoes the Pockel’s effect. We have developed a simple PEPC design in which the high-voltage pulse can be directly applied between the gascells without prior ionization of the gas (by a high-current plasma discharge). With reasonable operating parameters, this regime meets the PEPC optical switching requirements for the laser megajoules. In this paper, we present experimental results of this simple regime that strongly simplifies the PEPC concept and improves its reliability.