Abstract

Vulcan is a multiterawatt neodymium glass laser operating at 1053 nm. It is used by U.K. university research groups for laser–matter interactions, laser compression, and x-ray laser studies, etc. The laser system is described following the completion of two major upgrades. The output of the system consists of six 108-mm diam and two 150-mm diam box disk amplifiers providing a variety of sychronized pulses ranging from 20 ps to 20 ns to three target areas. The requirements of the users of the facility have led to a flexible system. Full power shots can be fired every 20 min without any detrimental effects on beam quality. This has been due to developments in the cooling of the disk amplifiers and these are detailed. A total energy of 1.8 kJ in a 1-ns pulse is available in six beams and each of the 150-mm beams can produce ~500 J in a 1-ns pulse. The power handling capacitor of the laser is ~5 TW.

© 1989 Optical Society of America