Intracavity adaptive correction of a high-average-power solid state heat-capacity laser

K. N. LaFortune; R. L. Hurd; J. M. Brase; R. M. Yamamoto

doi:10.1117/12.597467

12 April 2005 Intracavity adaptive correction of a high-average-power solid state heat-capacity laser

K. N. LaFortune, R. L. Hurd, J. M. Brase, R. M. Yamamoto

Proceedings Volume 5708, Laser Resonators and Beam Control VIII; (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.597467
Event: Lasers and Applications in Science and Engineering, 2005, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

The Solid-State, Heat-Capacity Laser (SSHCL) program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a multigeneration laser development effort scalable to the megawatt power levels. Wavefront quality is a driving metric of its performance. A deformable mirror with over 100 degrees of freedom situated within the cavity is used to correct both the static and dynamic aberrations sensed with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. The laser geometry is an unstable, confocal resonator with a clear aperture of 10 cm x 10 cm. It operates in a pulsed mode at a high repetition rate (up to 200 Hz) with a correction being applied before each pulse. Wavefront information is gathered in real-time from a low-power pick-off of the high-power beam. It is combined with historical trends of aberration growth to calculate a correction that is both feedback and feed-forward driven. The overall system design, measurement techniques and correction algorithms are discussed. Experimental results are presented.

Citation Download Citation

K. N. LaFortune, R. L. Hurd, J. M. Brase, and R. M. Yamamoto "Intracavity adaptive correction of a high-average-power solid state heat-capacity laser", Proc. SPIE 5708, Laser Resonators and Beam Control VIII, (12 April 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.597467

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