Development of high-power DPSSL for inertial fusion energy

We have conceptually designed a diode-pumped Nd:glass slab amplifier module for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE). As a first step of a driver development, we have been developing a diode-pumped zig-zag Nd:glass slab laser amplifier system which can generate an output energy of 10 J per pulse at 1053 nm in 10 Hz operation. The water-cooled zig-zag Nd: glass slab is pumped for both sides by 803-nm AlGaAs laser- diode (LD) module; each LD module has an emitting area of 420 mm X 10 mm and two LD modules generated in total 200kW peak power with 2.5kW/cm 2 peak intensity at 10 Hz repetition rate. We have obtained in a preliminary experiment a 8.5 J output energy at 0.5 Hz with a beam quality of 2 times diffraction limited far-field pattern.