Abstract

OMEGA is a 60-TW, 60-beam, frequency-tripled Nd:glass laser system designed to perform precision direct-drive inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) experiments. Construction and activation of the facility was completed in 1995, and the system has demonstrated exceptional performance—high driver stability (<2% variations), precise control of beam profiles and amplifier gains, 75% frequency-conversion efficiency, beam energy balance less than 8%, and stable on-target irradiation of up to 37 kJ UV. ICF experiments at near-ignition conditions, ultimately planned on OMEGA, will require irradiation uniformity better than 2% and pulse-shape control over a range of ~400: 1. This performance is expected after several stages of planned enhancements to the laser.

© 1996 Optical Society of America