Abstract
High gain inertial fusion requires highly uniform pellet implosions. For directly illuminated pellets the individual beams that illuminate the pellet must have highly uniform and controlled focal profiles. Here we briefly discuss the technology, advantages, and limitations of adding controlled amounts of spatial incoherence in the laser to obtain this uniform illumination. The main portion of this paper deals with improvements in high intensity laser-plasma interaction physics observed when using beams smoothed by spatial incoherence.
© 1989 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
R. H. Lehmberg, S. P. Obenschain, and M. Pronko
FJ1 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1989
T. Kessler and S. Skupsky
FJ3 OSA Annual Meeting (FIO) 1989
S. P. OBENSCHAIN, J. GRUN, M. J. HERBST, K. J. KEARNEY, C. K. MANKA, E. A. McLEAN, A. N. MOSTOVYCH, J. A. STAMPER, S. E. BODNER, J. H. GARDNER, R. H. LEHMBERG, MARK S. PRONKO, B. H. RIPIN, and A. J. SCHMITT
WHH2 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 1986