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Timestamp: 2019-04-20 20:50:26+00:00

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We present the results of performance modeling of diode-pumped solid state laser beamlines designed for use in Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) power plants. Our modeling quantifies the efficiency increases that can be obtained by increasing peak diode power and reducing pump-pulse duration, to reduce decay losses. At the same efficiency, beamlines that use laser slabs of Yb:YAG or Yb:S-FAP require lower diode power than beamlines that use laser slabs of Nd:phosphate glass, since Yb:YAG and Yb:S-FAP have longer storage lifetimes. Beamlines using Yb:YAG attain their highest efficiency at a temperature of about 200K. Beamlines using Nd:phosphate glass or Yb:S-FAP attain high efficiency at or near room temperature.
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Fig. 1 Schematic diagram showing the LIFE laser beamline design, which was used for our efficiency evaluations of Nd-doped phosphate glass, Yb-doped YAG, and Yb-doped S-FAP slabs. For Yb:S-FAP, the quarter-wave plate was removed and the rotator was moved to a location near the adaptive optic, to accommodate Yb:S-FAP’s natural birefringence.
Fig. 2 Efficiency vs. peak system diode power for beamlines using Nd:APG-1, Yb:YAG and Yb:S-FAP laser slabs. Since output fluence and energy per beamline depends upon the gain medium and operating temperature, the number of beamlines was varied to keep the total output pulse energy at 3w fixed, at 2.2 MJ. See text for details.

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