Optical Architecture for a Multi-Megajoule ICF Driver Incorporating Megajoule Class KrF Amplifiers

Abstract

A gaseous amplifying medium should be scalable to any arbitrary size. A system architecture is reported which will produce 10 MJ with only four amplifiers in the last stage by making use of this scalability. The system described uses optical angular multiplexing for efficient utilization of such large KrF amplifiers. For such large amplifiers, each multiplex beamline carries 16 kJ toward the target chamber. This is because the pump duration need only be increased as the cube root of the output energy and is only 2050 ns. While the use of angular multiplexing does not increase the total count of beamlines, it does increase their length since space has to be provided for the temporal decoder; a possible site plan is shown. Optical beam tubes are filled with He to avoid propagation problems and to promote cleanliness. Single shot sacrificial windows are proposed for large amplifiers. Relatively large multiplexing angles reduce crosstalk to a manageable level.