Group velocity effects in broadband frequency conversion on OMEGA. 1998 summer research program for high school juniors at the University of Rochester`s Laboratory for Laser Energetics: Student research reports

Abstract

The powerful lasers needed for ICF can only produce light in the infrared wavelengths. However, the one micron wavelength produced by the neodymium glass that powers OMEGA and other lasers used for fusion research does not efficiently compress the fuel pellet. This happens because the infrared light is not well absorbed by the target, and because of the creation of suprathermal electrons. These suprathermal electrons preheat the fuel, adding extra resistance to compression. To eliminate these problems associated with longer wavelengths of light, the process of frequency converting the laser beam was invented. This process efficiently converts the initial beam to a beam which has three times the frequency and one third the wavelength. The third-harmonic beam, in the UV range, has a better absorption rate. The PV-WAVE computer program that the author has written has shown that increasing the frequency of SSD (Smoothing by Spectral Dispersion) on OMEGA to approximately 10 GHz as planned will not hurt the third harmonic generation conversion efficiency significantly. The increased bandwidth and increased frequency of SSD will make the laser beams that strike the target on OMEGA much smoother and more uniform than ever before. Therefore it is both safe and advisable to add a second tripler crystal to the OMEGA system and decrease the SSD time cycle to around 100 picoseconds. Since the conversion efficiency remains high up to approximately 30 GHz, more experiments on OMEGA may be carried out with even higher modulation frequencies. These modifications to the existing OMEGA laser should make target irradiation more uniform, leading to more uniform compression and hopefully, a higher energy yield.