The Dynamic Compression Sector laser: A 100-J UV laser for dynamic compression research

Abstract

The Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) laser is a 100-J ultraviolet Nd:glass system designed and built by the Laboratory for Laser Energetics for experimental research at the DCS located at the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne National Laboratory). Its purpose is to serve as a shock driver to study materials under extreme dynamic pressures. It was designed to deposit energy within a uniformly illuminated 500-μm spot on target, with additional optics provided to implement spot sizes of 250 and 1000 μm. Designed after larger-scale glass lasers such as OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility, the laser consists of a fiber front end with interferometer-based pulse shaping, a Nd:glass regenerative amplifier, a four-pass rod amplifier, and a 15-cm glass disk amplifier, through which six passes are made in a bowtie geometry. The output is frequency tripled from 1053 to 351 nm by using a pair of type-II phase-matched KDP crystals, with a third to increase conversion bandwidth. The super-Gaussian spot in the far field is achieved with a distributed phase plate and a 1-m aspherical focusing lens. Beam smoothing is achieved by smoothing by spectral dispersion and polarization smoothing, resulting in a root-mean-square variation in intensity on target of ±8.7%.