Laser program overview

This Laboratory is conducting a program to assess the scientific feasibility of laser-driven implosion and thermonuclear burn of microscopic targets containing deuterium and tritium. Experiments are being run on a single-pulse basis, the emphasis being on fast diagnostics of neutron, x-ray, α-particle, and scattered laser-light fluxes from the target. The laser source for this work is the neodymium-doped-glass (Nd:glass) laser operating in a master oscillator, power-amplifier configuration, where a well-characterized, mode-locked pulse is shaped and amplified by successive stages to a peak power of 1 TW in a 20-cm-diam beam. A second major laser program at LLL is proving the scientific feasibility of laser isotope separation, that is, the ability of lasers to change the isotopic ratios of elements. The third major component of the laser effort--research and development--concerns the development of efficient, low-cost lasers for the fusion and isotope-separation programs