Overview of the Nike KrF Laser Program

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Abstract
Nike is a large angularly multiplexed Krypton-Fluoride (KrF) laser under development at the Naval Research Laboratory. It is designed to explore the technical and physics issues of direct drive laser fusion1. When completed, Nike will deliver 2–3 kJ of 248 nm light in a 4 nsec pulse with intensities exceeding 2 × 10 14W/cm2 onto a planar target. Spatially and temporally incoherent light will be used to reduce the ablation pressure nonuniformities to less than 2% in the target focal plane. The Nike laser consists of a commercial oscillator/amplifier front end, an array of gas discharge amplifiers, two electron beam pumped amplifiers (one with a 20 × 20 cm2 aperture, the other with a 60 × 60 cm2 aperture) and the optics required to relay, encode, and decode the beam. Approximately 90% of the system is operational and currently undergoing tests: the system is complete through the 20 cm amplifier, the 60 cm amplifier has completed all the necessary electron beam/pulsed power tests, and is currently be...