Development of diode-pumped solid-state laser HALNA for fusion reactor driver

The diode-pumped slab laser for inertial fusion energy driver has been demonstrated, which produces the 1053-nm output energy of 10 J at 10 Hz. The glass slab laser amplifier has been pumped by quasi-CW 290-kW AlGaAs laser-diode arrays at 803 nm. The optical system can compensate for thermal effects by use of zigzag optical propagation, image-relayed telescope, and 45° Faraday rotator. The output energy of 10.6 J at 1 Hz with the optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 19.9% has been successfully obtained. Also, the 10-Hz operation has been performed with an output energy of 5.1 J. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 155(2): 27–35, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20288