Abstract
Investigations were carried out at the multistage hybrid Ti:sapphire–KrF laser facility GARPUN-MTW on the direct amplification of TW-power picosecond UV laser pulses in e-beam-pumped KrF amplifiers and propagation along a 100 m laboratory air pass. The experiments identified the main nonlinear effects and their impact on the amplification efficiency, amplifier optics degradation, beam quality and focusability, and the evolution of radiation spectra. The research was performed towards an implementation of the shock-ignition concept of inertial-confinement fusion using krypton fluoride laser drivers.
Highlights
Among the various schemes of direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the most efficient and feasible one for inertial-fusionenergy (IFE) production seems to be a shock-ignition (SI) approach.1,2 This constitutes the implosion of a spherical shell target, containing thermonuclear (TN) fuel, to a high areal density by the ablation pressure produced by the main driving pulse of TW power across the width of a few nanoseconds
We found three different ways to restore CaF2 window transmittance: (i) 6 h annealing in a muffle furnace at a temperature of 350 °C and subsequent polishing to remove the defect layer formed in saturation of heated CaF2 with atmospheric gases; (ii) color-center bleaching by continuous UV/visible irradiation from a mercury lamp PRK-2, which produces line emission, with the most intense lines at 248.2, 253.7, 265.2, . . ., 302.2/2.6, 312.6/3.2, and 365.0/
In the case of air at a ultrashort pulses (USPs) power of 0.75 GW, about 50% of the transmitted radiation falls outside the krypton fluoride (KrF) gain band; whereas for radiation passing through the CaF2 sample, more than 90% of the total pulse energy is outside the gain band
Summary
Among the various schemes of direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the most efficient and feasible one for inertial-fusionenergy (IFE) production seems to be a shock-ignition (SI) approach. This constitutes the implosion of a spherical shell target, containing thermonuclear (TN) fuel, to a high areal density by the ablation pressure produced by the main driving pulse of TW power across the width of a few nanoseconds. Among the various schemes of direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the most efficient and feasible one for inertial-fusionenergy (IFE) production seems to be a shock-ignition (SI) approach.. Among the various schemes of direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the most efficient and feasible one for inertial-fusionenergy (IFE) production seems to be a shock-ignition (SI) approach.1,2 This constitutes the implosion of a spherical shell target, containing thermonuclear (TN) fuel, to a high areal density by the ablation pressure produced by the main driving pulse of TW power across the width of a few nanoseconds. This is followed by a final spike at one to two orders of magnitude of higher power with a width of several hundred picoseconds. Only frequency-tripled, diode-pumped, solid-state (DPSSL), and e-beam-pumped krypton fluoride (KrF) lasers are considered as promising drivers for IFE.
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