High Power Pulsed Lasers

NIKE
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Plasma Physics Division Washington, USA.
Specifications: 5 kJ, 4 ns, 1.25 TW 56 beam, ultra-uniform laser illumination Kr + F + Ar excited by two opposing 670 kV electron beams
Schematics
Final and largest amplifier (double pass). On either side of cell, four transmission lines drive electron beams guided by two large black 4 kG electromagnets. Beams are powered by Marx banks. In this photo, the right hand side of the system has been rolled back to display the electron beam emitter and the high voltage vacuum insulators.
Another view of 60 x 60 cm2 amplifier cell.

Pharos III
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Washington, USA.
Specifications: 1.5 kJ, 5 TW Nd-laser
Amplifiers

NRL T3
T3 = Table Top Terawatts Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Washington, USA.
Specifications: 1 J, 400 fs, 2.5 TW, 1054 nm 3 X 1018 W cm-2
Optical Table. An experiment in high energy electron acceleration was performed by Moore, et al. : 1999, Phys. Rev. Lett., 82, 1688.

PALS (ASTERIX IV)
Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Specifications: 1.2 kJ, 100-500 ps, 3 TW, 0.00083 Hz 100 J (two smaller beams) 1.315 µm Iodine laser Power limited by damage threshold of antireflective coatings of polarisers in Faraday rotator and self-focusing in the glass windows of the amplifiers PALS was formely called ASTERIX IV and was located at Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, Germany. It moved to Czechoslovakia and was renamed PALS (Prague Asterix Laser System).
Schematic (Click on any part to view image)
Detailed Schematic
Schematic of amplifier gas flow (Ar + C3F7I which is photoionized)
Schematic of 30 kV Xe flashlamps, 10 µs, 250 - 300 nm UV
Oscillator and pulse selection system, with Pockels cells in center (see theory)
First vacuum spatial filter, beam expands from 8 to 22 mm. (see theory)
Output end of first power amplifier (double passed) (see theory)
Second spatial filter, 22 to 45 mm expansion. Relay mirror on left sends beam toward next amplifier.
Output end of second amplifier, 2.7 m. White tubes leading to the room below re-supply the laser medium after each shot.
Third spatial filter, 45 to 90 mm expansion
Output end of third amplifier, 3.24 m
Faraday rotator, between third and fourth amplifier. Box-like object on left is polarizer mount; coil generating the longitudinal magnetic field is downstream on right
Forth spatial filter, 90 to 148 mm expansion
Input end of fourth amplifier, 6.48 m. Black cables carry high voltage from capacitor banks (underneath) to six flashlamp sections. (see also)
Fifth spatial filter, 148 to 290 mm expansion
Fifth amplifier, 8.64 m. It is composed of eight sections each more than one meter long. The inner quartz tube contains Ar + C3F7I gas pressurised to three atmospheres (see also Dr. Josef Krása of the IPP).
MPQ photo before the move

ATLAS
MPQ, Darmstadt, Germany
Specifications: 300 mJ, 130 fs, 10 Hz, 790 nm, 1018 W cm-2 1 J, 130 fs, 10 Hz, 1019 W cm-2 4 J, 0.0017 Hz 10 fs, 1 kHz
Schematic of Ti:sapphire laser

PHELIX
Lasers and Laser spectroscopy, Atomic Physics, at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), Darmstadt, Germany in collaboration with Plasma Physics department of GSI Max-Born-Institute in Berlin Lasers Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California. TU-Darmstadt Uni Jena LMU München MPQ in Garching.
Specifications: 1 kJ, 1-10 ns, 1 hour repetition rate 500 J, < 500 fs, 1 hour repetition rate
Schematic and fs front-end

TRIDENT
Los Alamos ICF and Radiation Physics
Specifications: 50 J, 80 - 2100 ps, 527 nm 250 J, 1 ns, 527 nm, 2 beam 20 J, 80 - 2100 ps, 527 nm 40 J, 1 ns, 527 nm 1J, 0.320 ps, 1054 nm 45 minutes shot interval
Schematic (Nd:YLF master oscillator)
Chain of Nd:phosphate glass rod and disk amplifiers
Target chamber (outside)
Target chamber (inside)

OMEGA
The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) University of Rochester, USA.
Specifications: 40 kJ, 700 ps, 60 TW 60-beam system 1mm spot size
Schematics
Target Chamber with 12 kJ laser pulse

NOVA
Livermore
Specifications: 100 kJ, 20 ps to 1 ns, 120 TW 10 beams of 70 cm diameter 527 nm or 351 nm Dismantled in 1999
Schematic (from tour)
Target chamber
Amplifiers

NIF
Livermore
Specifications: 1.8 MJ
Target chamber

ASTRA
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Specifications: 10 mJ, 50 fs, 0.2 TW, 800 nm, 10 Hz Ti:Sapphire, CPA
Schematics
Phase I experiment (see Target chamber)

VULCAN
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Specifications: 1 ns, 2.6 kJ, 2.6 TW, 1054 nm < 1ps, 100 TW, 1054 nm 1 kJ, 527 nm
Nd:glass disk amplifier
Broad bandwidth pre-amplifier (Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification, OPCPA)
Output stages

TITANIA
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Specifications: 2.5J, 250 fs, 10 TW, 1020 W cm-2
e-beam pumped KrF excimer laser, April 1997 (SPRITE upgrade)

LULI
Laboratoire Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI), Ecole Polytechique, Paris
Specifications: 30 J, 300 fs, 100 TW peak 50 J, 450 ps, 100 GW peak
6 beam CICLAS amplifier image
Schematics
Ti:Saphire oscillator and preamplifier image
Multi-glass amplifier chain image
90 mm amplifiers
Phospate disk amplifier image (by Rutherford Appleton Lab.)
Target chamber
Pulse compressor

ALPHA 1
Adanced Laser Facility, Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michiga
Specifications: 50 mJ, 15 fs, 25 W Average, 3 TW peak at 500 Hz 1.5 TW peak at 1 kHz
Schematics (All diode pumped)

ALPHA 2
Adanced Laser Facility, Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan
Specifications: 300 TW at 1 Hz
Schematics

U3
U3 = Ultrafast, Ultra-powerful, Ultra-intense Wilson·Squier Group, University of California San Diego
Specifications: 30 fs, 850 mJ, 30 TW Peak at 10 Hz 20 fs, 150 mJ, 8 TW Peak at 20 Hz 18 fs, 100 mJ, 5 TW Peak at 50 Hz (5 W Average)
Optical table (closeup)
Image

IOQ Jena Ti:Sa
IOQ Jena, Institut fur Optik und Quantenelektronik
Specifications: 100 fs, 240 mJ, 2.4 TW, 10 Hz, 795 nm
femtosecond oscillator (Continuum/Spectra Physics laser)
(broken link)
Terawatt amplifier

MBI Nd:glass	MBI Ti:Sa
High Field Lasers, Max Born Institute part of Cluster of European Large Scale Laser Installations
1053 nm 8 J, 700 fs, 10 TW, 2 beams 10 J, 1.5 ns, 2 beams 10 mJ, 150 fs, 10 Hz, third beam CPA Ti:Saphire oscillator and regenerative amplifier Nd:glass power amplifier Will use diode pumping in near future	35 fs, 300 mJ, 10 TW, 10 Hz 30 fs, 750 mJ, 25 TW (July 1999) 3J, 100 TW (December 2000) about 1019 W cm-2 CPA Ti:Saphire 800 nm
Amplifiers are red boxes (at top of image) Spatial filters are white tubes (at top of image)	Laser (bottom left) Pulse compressor in vaccum chamber (bottom right)

• Bibliography of short pulse laser-plasma interactions

Laser History