Abstract
A one-beam prototype of a large twenty-four-beam phosphate-glass laser system has been built and tested. Basic design characteristics include Nd-doped phosphate glass, rod amplifiers up to 90-mm diam, the propagation of a circularly polarized beam, extensive spatial filtering and imaging, and the use of large-aperture Pockels cells. The prototype system has demonstrated focusable power in excess of 750 GW/beam at 50-psec full width at half-maximum (FWHM) pulse duration and has delivered 165 J of focusable energy in a 500-psec (FWHM) pulse. Maximum beam brightness has been measured to be 4 × 1019 W/cm2 · sr at a firing rate of 2 shots/hr. Peak-to-background energy contrast of 108 has been achieved with this system. A detailed description of the system design and performance is presented.
© 1980 Optical Society of America
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