The final optics assemblies (FOAs) are the last element of the main laser system and the first of the target area systems. Each FOA contains four integrated optics modules (IOMs) that incorporate beam conditioning, frequency conversion, focusing, diagnostic sampling, and debris shielding capabilities into a single compact assembly.

Thousands of lenses, mirrors, amplifier slabs, and other optics are essential elements of the elaborate process that directs, transforms, and focuses the initial single, ultra-low-energy laser pulse from the NIF master oscillator into the 192 high-energy laser beams that …

NIF targets are precisely controlled in a cryogenic cooling system that keeps the deuterium-tritium fuel frozen inside a millimeter-sized capsule. In a NIF ignition experiment, a tiny capsule containing two forms of hydrogen, deuterium (D) and tritium (T), is suspended inside a cylindrical x-ray “oven” called a hohlraum.

2023年3月29日 · Since NIF became operational in 2009, the LLNL optics team has persisted in hardening the optics to withstand ever-increasing laser energy, as NIF routinely exceeded its design specification of 1.8 megajoules and the debris that results from every experiment.

2017年3月23日 · The National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser with its 192 independent laser beams is not only the world’s largest laser but also the largest optical system ever built. With its 192 independent laser beams, the NIF requires a total of 7648 large-aperture (meter-sized) optics.

A new anti-reflective coating and a novel chemical process for laser optics, developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers, represents an important breakthrough in its effort to boost the energy of the National Ignition Facility’s (NIF) 192 giant lasers, and cut the cost of repairing or replacing damaged optics

2004年3月23日 · Advanced optical materials and fabrication technologies needed to manufacture the NIF optics have been developed and put into production at key vendor sites. Production rates are up to 20 times...

NIF is both the largest laser and the largest optical instru- ment ever built, requiring 7500 large optics (over one foot across) and more than 30,000 small optics.

In NIF laser shots, a complex series of optics, including amplifiers, mirrors and wavelength converters, strengthens and guides laser light into the target chamber, where it is focused on...

Many NIF optics are made of fused silica (noncrystalline silicon dioxide) because this material exhibits excellent optical properties. In particular, it transmits laser light over a wide spectral range. The manufacturing processes for fused silica optics can, however, produce microscopic defects, or damage precursors, on