Open AccessMeasurement and control of optical nonlinearities of importance to glass laser fusion systems
Author(s) -
N A Kurnit,
T Shimada,
M S Sorem,
A J Taylor,
G Rodriguez,
T S Clement,
D James,
P W Milonni
Publication year - 1996
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/425365
Subject(s) - optics , national ignition facility , distortion (music) , beam (structure) , phase (matter) , materials science , laser , inertial confinement fusion , physics , optoelectronics , amplifier , cmos , quantum mechanics
Results of a number of studies carried out at Los Alamos, both experimental and theoretical, of nonlinear optical phenomena important to the design of the National Ignition Facility are summarized. These include measurements of nonlinear index coefficients, Raman scattering in atmospheric oxygen, and theoretical studies of harmonic conversion. The measurements were made by two different techniques in order to increase confidence in the results. One method was an application of a recently-developed technique for measuring the amplitude and phase of an ultrashort pulse by Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating (FROG). The other utilized a modified version of the Z-scan technique that measures beam distortion introduced by scanning a sample through the focus of a beam. The measurements by both techniques for fused silica were consistent with the lower range of previously measured values, indicating that it should not be necessary to further expand the beam size in the NIF to stay below the self-focusing threshold