Status of the SG-III solid state laser project

Abstract

High power solid state laser technologies for application to inertial confinement fusion have been developed over the past three decades in China. The XG-1 laser facility was built in 1984 and upgraded into XG-II in 1993. The SG-1 was completed in 1985 and the upgrade into SG-II will be finished in a few months. As the next step, the SG-III laser facility has been proposed to produce 60-kJ blue light for ICF target physics experiments and is one being conceptually designed. A preliminary baseline design suggest that he SG- III be a 64-beam facility with an output beam size of 25 cm X 25cm. The main amplifier column of 4 high by 2 wide has been chosen as a module. New laser technologies, including multipass amplification, large aperture plasma electrode switches, fast growth of KDP, laser glass with fewer platinum grains, Ce-doped quartz long flash lamps, capacitors with higher energy density, Ce-doped quartz long flash lamps, capacitors with higher energy density and precision manufacturing technique of large optical components have been developed to meet the requirements of the SG-III Project. In addition, numerical simulations are being conducted to optimize the optical design of the facility. The technical integration line with a 4 X 2 segmented aperture array of the amplifiers as a prototype beamline of the SG-III has been scheduled for the next few years.