Development of low-coherence high-power laser drivers for inertial confinement fusion

The use of low-coherence light is expected to be one of the effective ways to suppress or even eliminate the laser–plasma instabilities that arise in attempts to achieve inertial confinement fusion.In this paper,a review of low-coherence high-power laser drivers and related key techniques is first presented.Work at typical low-coherence laser facilities,including Gekko XII,PHEBUS,Pharos III,and Kanal-2 is described.The many key techniques that are used in the research and development of low-coherence laser drivers are described and analyzed,including low-coherence source generation,amplification,harmonic conversion,and beam smoothing of low-coherence light.Then,recent progress achieved by our group in research on a broadband low-coherence laser driver is presented.During the development of our low-coherence high-power laser facility,we have proposed and implemented many key techniques for working with low-coherence light,including source generation,efficient amplification and propagation,harmonic conversion,beam smoothing,and precise beam control.Based on a series of technological breakthroughs,a kilojoule low-coherence laser driver named Kunwu with a coherence time of only 300 fs has been built,and the first round of physical experiments has been completed.This high-power laser facility provides not only a demonstration and verification platform for key techniques and system integration of a low-coherence laser driver,but also a new type of experimental platform for research into,for example,high-energy-density physics and,in particular,laser–plasma interactions.

Target alignment in the Shen-Guang Ⅱ Upgrade laser facility

The Shen-Guang II Upgrade(SG-Ⅱ-U) laser facility consists of eight high-power nanosecond laser beams and one shortpulse picosecond petawatt laser. It is designed for the study of inertial confinement fusion(ICF), especially for conducting fast ignition(FI) research in China and other basic science experiments. To perform FI successfully with hohlraum targets containing a golden cone, the long-pulse beam and cylindrical hohlraum as well as the short-pulse beam and cone target alignment must satisfy tight specifications(30 and 20 μm rms for each case). To explore new ICF ignition targets with six laser entrance holes(LEHs), a rotation sensor was adapted to meet the requirements of a three-dimensional target and correct beam alignment. In this paper, the strategy for aligning the nanosecond beam based on target alignment sensor(TAS) is introduced and improved to meet requirements of the picosecond lasers and the new six LEHs hohlraum targets in the SG-II-U facility. The expected performance of the alignment system is presented, and the alignment error is also discussed.

Design and performance of final optics assembly in SG-ⅡUpgrade laser facility

In high power laser facility for inertial confinement fusion research, final optics assembly(FOA) plays a critical role in the frequency conversion, beam focusing, color separation, beam sampling and debris shielding. The design and performance of FOA in SG-II Upgrade laser facility are mainly introduced here. Due to the limited space and short focal length, a coaxial aspheric wedged focus lens is designed and applied in the FOA configuration. Then the ghost image analysis,the focus characteristic analysis, the B integral control design and the optomechanical design are carried out in the FOA design phase. In order to ensure the FOA performance, two key technologies are developed including measurement and adjustment technique of the wedged focus lens and the stray light management technique based on ground glass.Experimental results show that the design specifications including laser fluence, frequency conversion efficiency and perforation efficiency of the focus spot have been achieved, which meet the requirements of physical experiments well.