1 July 2009 Interferometric adaptive optics for high-power laser pointing and wavefront control and phasing
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Implementing the capability to perform fast ignition experiments, as well as, radiography experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) places stringent requirements on the control of each of the beam's pointing and overall wavefront quality. One quad of the NIF beams, four beam pairs, will be utilized for these experiments and hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations indicate that for the fast ignition experiments, these beams will be required to deliver 50% (4.0 kJ) of their total energy (7.96 kJ) within a 40-µm-diam spot at the end of a fast ignition cone target. This requirement implies a stringent pointing and overall phase conjugation error budget on the adaptive optics system used to correct these beam lines. The overall encircled energy requirement is more readily met by phasing of the beams in pairs but still requires high Strehl ratios and root-mean-square tip/tilt errors of approximately 1 µrad. To accomplish this task we have designed an interferometric adaptive optics system capable of beam pointing, high Strehl ratio, and beam phasing with a single pixilated microelectromechanical systems deformable mirror and interferometric wavefront sensor. We present the design of a testbed used to evaluate the performance of this wavefront sensor along with simulations of its expected performance level.
©(2009) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Kevin L. Baker, Eddy A. Stappaerts, Doug C. Homoelle, Mark A. Henesian, Erlan S. Bliss, Craig W. Siders, and Christopher P. Barty "Interferometric adaptive optics for high-power laser pointing and wavefront control and phasing," Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS 8(3), 033040 (1 July 2009). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3167840
Published: 1 July 2009
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 10 scholarly publications.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Adaptive optics

Interferometry

Microelectromechanical systems

National Ignition Facility

Wavefronts

Laser beam diagnostics

Mirrors

Back to Top