Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Last updated
Laboratory for Laser Energetics
Laboratory for Laser Energetics logo.jpg
Motto "A unique national resource"
Established1970
Research typeUnclassified
Field of research
The investigation of the interaction of intense radiation with matter
Director Christopher Deeney
Staff 400 - 500 people
Address250 East River Rd
Rochester, NY 14623-1212
Location Brighton, New York, US
43°06′47″N77°37′55″W / 43.113108°N 77.632012°W / 43.113108; -77.632012
14623
Affiliations United States Department of Energy
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
State University of New York at Geneseo
University of Nevada, Reno
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Operating agency
 University of Rochester
Website lle.rochester.edu

The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is a scientific research facility which is part of the University of Rochester's south campus, located in Brighton, New York. The lab was established in 1970 with operations jointly funded by the United States Department of Energy, the University of Rochester and the New York State government. The Laser Lab was commissioned to investigate high-energy physics involving the interaction of extremely intense laser radiation with matter. Scientific experiments at the facility emphasize inertial confinement, direct drive, laser-induced fusion, fundamental plasma physics and astrophysics using the OMEGA Laser Facility. In June 1995, OMEGA became the world's highest-energy ultraviolet laser. [1] The lab shares its building with the Center for Optoelectronics and Imaging and the Center for Optics Manufacturing. The Robert L. Sproull Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research was opened in 2005 and houses the OMEGA EP laser, which was completed in May 2008.

Contents

More than 270 Ph.D.s have been awarded as of 2022 for research conducted at the LLE. [2] [3] During summer months the lab sponsors local-area high school juniors in research at the laboratory, with most of their projects led by senior scientists at the lab. [4]

History

The LLE was founded on the University of Rochester's campus in 1970, by Dr. Moshe Lubin. [5] [6] Working with outside companies such as Kodak the team built Delta, a four beam laser system in 1972. Construction started on the current LLE site in 1976. [5] The facility opened a six beam laser system in 1978 and followed with a 24 beam system two years later. In 2018, Donna Strickland [7] and Gérard Mourou shared a Nobel prize for work they had undertaken in 1985 while at LLE. [8] They invented a method to amplify laser pulses by "chirping" for which they would share the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. This method disperses a short, broadband pulse of laser light into a temporally longer spectrum of wavelengths. The system amplifies the laser at each wavelength and then reconstitutes the beam into one color. Chirp pulsed amplification became instrumental in building the National Ignition Facility and the OMEGA EP system. In 1995, the OMEGA Laser system was increased to 60 beams, and in 2008 the OMEGA Extended Performance (OMEGA EP) system was opened.

The Guardian and Scientific American provided simplified summaries of the work of Strickland and Mourou: it "paved the way for the shortest, most intense laser beams ever created". "The ultrabrief, ultrasharp beams can be used to make extremely precise cuts so their technique is now used in laser machining and enables doctors to perform millions of corrective" laser eye surgeries. [9] [10]

OMEGA laser

The OMEGA laser is a laser device at the LLE built to perform direct-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments. It is a 60-beam ultraviolet frequency-tripled neodymium glass laser, which is capable of delivering 40 kilojoules at up to 60 terawatts, making it one of the most powerful and highest energy lasers in the world. The laser light can be focused onto a spherical target less than 1 millimeter in diameter [11] suspended in a spherical vacuum chamber 3.3 meters in diameter. [12]

Initial construction and commissioning of the laser were completed in 1980 under a 21 million USD contract between the University of Rochester and the US Department of Energy. At the time, it was a 24-beam 15 terawatt system. [13] It was upgraded between 1990 and 1995 for 61 million USD into the 60-beam system that exists today. [12] OMEGA held the record for highest energy laser (per pulse) from 1999 (after the Nova laser's dismantling) to 2005, when the first 8 beams of the National Ignition Facility exceeded OMEGA's output by about 30 kJ in the ultraviolet.

OMEGA is used for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments, in which the lasers compress a target filled with fusion fuel, forming a dense hot region at the center in which nuclear fusion reactions occur. OMEGA once held the record for highest neutron yield of any inertial confinement fusion device.[ citation needed ] It has demonstrated yields of over 5×1013 reactions per implosion, with internal pressures of over 50 gigabars. [14]

OMEGA EP laser

The OMEGA EP (extended performance) laser system is an independently operable laser device and extension to OMEGA dedicated on May 16, 2008 with the purpose of studying advanced ignition techniques. [15] It hosts four NIF-like laser beams, each capable of delivering up to 1.6 kilojoules of energy, as well as a new target chamber. Two of the beams possess pulse compression gratings allowing for pulses as short as 1 picosecond. [16] The laser is housed inside a 2005 building addition.

While OMEGA EP normally operates separately from OMEGA, its two short-pulse beams can also be combined and directed into the OMEGA target chamber, in addition to OMEGA's 60 existing beams. The high power of these beams combined with their ability to be independently timed enables integrated fast-ignition experiments, in which the OMEGA laser compresses a spherical target full of fusion fuel and then OMEGA EP drives a beam of electrons into its center, kick-starting thermonuclear burn. The combination of the OMEGA and the OMEGA EP laser systems makes LLE the world's only fully integrated cryogenic fast ignition experimental facility. [17]

Organization

West entrance of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics UR Laboratory for Laser Energetics main entrance.jpg
West entrance of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics

LLE is located at, and operated by the University of Rochester. [18] OMEGA and OMEGA EP are user facilities, open for use by the entire scientific community. [19]

LLE's principal sponsor is the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Office of Defense Programs Archived 2015-04-20 at the Wayback Machine , which supports its stockpile stewardship and advanced scientific computing programs. [19] [18]

The Laboratory has a five-fold mission: [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inertial confinement fusion</span> Branch of fusion energy research

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a fusion energy process that initiates nuclear fusion reactions by compressing and heating targets filled with fuel. The targets are small pellets, typically containing deuterium (2H) and tritium (3H).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Ignition Facility</span> American nuclear fusion facility

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titanium-sapphire laser</span> Type of laser

Titanium-sapphire lasers (also known as Ti:sapphire lasers, Ti:Al2O3 lasers or Ti:sapphs) are tunable lasers which emit red and near-infrared light in the range from 650 to 1100 nanometers. These lasers are mainly used in scientific research because of their tunability and their ability to generate ultrashort pulses thanks to its broad light emission spectrum. Lasers based on Ti:sapphire were first constructed and invented in June 1982 by Peter Moulton at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The stretching and compression uses devices that ensure that the different color components of the pulse travel different distances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gérard Mourou</span> French physicist (born 1944)

Gérard Albert Mourou is a French scientist and pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and lasers. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, along with Donna Strickland, for the invention of chirped pulse amplification, a technique later used to create ultrashort-pulse, very high-intensity (petawatt) laser pulses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nova (laser)</span> High-power laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Nova was a high-power laser built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, United States, in 1984 which conducted advanced inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments until its dismantling in 1999. Nova was the first ICF experiment built with the intention of reaching "ignition", the condition where self heating of the fusion plasma exceeds all losses. Although Nova failed in this goal, the data it generated clearly defined the problem as being mostly a result of Rayleigh–Taylor instability, leading to the design of the National Ignition Facility, Nova's successor. Nova also generated considerable amounts of data on high-density matter physics, regardless of the lack of ignition, which is useful both in fusion power and nuclear weapons research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inertial fusion power plant</span>

Inertial Fusion Energy is a proposed approach to building a nuclear fusion power plant based on performing inertial confinement fusion at industrial scale. This approach to fusion power is still in a research phase. ICF first developed shortly after the development of the laser in 1960, but was a classified US research program during its earliest years. In 1972, John Nuckolls wrote a paper predicting that compressing a target could create conditions where fusion reactions are chained together, a process known as fusion ignition or a burning plasma. On August 8, 2021, the NIF at Livermore National Laboratory became the first ICF facility in the world to demonstrate this. This breakthrough drove the US Department of Energy to create an Inertial Fusion Energy program in 2022 with a budget of 3 million dollars in its first year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argus laser</span>

Argus was a two-beam high power infrared neodymium doped silica glass laser with a 20 cm (7.9 in) output aperture built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1976 for the study of inertial confinement fusion. Argus advanced the study of laser-target interaction and paved the way for the construction of its successor, the 20 beam Shiva laser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HiPER</span> Planned ICF powered by lasers

The High Power laser Energy Research facility (HiPER), is a proposed experimental laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) device undergoing preliminary design for possible construction in the European Union. As of 2019, the effort appears to be inactive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulcan laser</span>

The Vulcan laser is an infrared, 8-beam, petawatt neodymium glass laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory's Central Laser Facility in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It was the facility's first operational laser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Moses (physicist)</span> American physicist

Edward Moses is an American physicist and is the former president of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization. He is a past principal associate director for the National Ignition Facility & Photon Science Directorate, where he led the California-based NIF, the largest experimental science facility in the US and the world's most energetic laser, that hopes to demonstrate the first feasible example of usable nuclear fusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnetized liner inertial fusion</span> Method of producing controlled nuclear fusion

Magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) is an ongoing fusion power experiment being carried out on the Z Pulsed Power Facility at Sandia National Laboratories in the US. It is one example of the broader magneto-inertial fusion approach, which attempts to compress a pre-heated plasma. The goal is to produce fusion conditions without the level of compression needed in the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) approach, where the required densities reach about 100 times that of lead.

Riccardo Betti is the Robert L. McCrory professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY. Since 2004, he has also acted as the Director of the Fusion Science Center at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He received is Ph.D. from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. Prior to that he studied at the University of Rome (Italy), where he graduated with honors with a degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1987.

Central Laser Facility (CLF) is a research facility in the UK. It is part of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The facility is dedicated to studying the applications of high energy lasers. It was opened in 1976. As of 2013 there are 5 active laser laboratories at the CLF: Vulcan, Astra Gemini, Artemis, ULTRA, and OCTOPUS. The facility provides both high-power and high-sensitivity lasers for study across broad fields of science from atomic and plasma physics to medical diagnostics, biochemistry and environmental science. Also through the Centre for Advanced Laser Technology and Application (CALTA), CLF is responsible for laser development. DiPOLE is the brainchild of that project.

LASNEX is a computer program that simulates the interactions between x-rays and a plasma, along with many effects associated with these interactions. The program is used to predict the performance of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) devices such as the Nova laser or proposed particle beam "drivers". Versions of LASNEX have been used since the late 1960s or early 1970s, and the program has been constantly updated. LASNEX's existence was mentioned in John Nuckolls' seminal paper in Nature in 1972 that first widely introduced the ICF concept, saying it was "...like breaking an enemy code. It tells you how many divisions to bring to bear on a problem."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donna Strickland</span> Canadian physicist, engineer, and Nobel laureate

Donna Theo Strickland is a Canadian optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Gérard Mourou, for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

The history of nuclear fusion began early in the 20th century as an inquiry into how stars powered themselves and expanded to incorporate a broad inquiry into the nature of matter and energy, as potential applications expanded to include warfare, energy production and rocket propulsion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Kritcher</span> American nuclear engineer and physicist

Andrea Lynn "Annie" Kritcher is an American nuclear engineer and physicist who works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She was responsible for the development of Hybrid-E, a capsule that enables inertial confinement fusion. She was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Gatu Johnson</span> Swedish-American plasma physicist

Maria Gatu Johnson is a Swedish-American plasma physicist whose research involves the use of neutron spectrometry to study inertial confinement fusion and stellar nucleosynthesis. She works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a principal research scientist in the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

References

  1. ↑ "World's Most Powerful Ultraviolet Laser Comes On-line" http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=641
  2. ↑ "LLE Theses". Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  3. ↑ "Theses from NLUF and other External University Student Research". Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  4. ↑ "High School Reports". Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  5. 1 2 "Leading Lights" Features, Rochester Magazine, 2010, http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V73N1/0401_feature2.html, By Scott Hauser
  6. ↑ "LLE Timeline Plaques". Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  7. ↑ "Dr. Donna Strickland: Packing a laser punch" The University of Waterloo, Personal Profiles, accessed 1-11-2014, "Dr. Donna Strickland | Science". Archived from the original on 2014-01-11. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  8. ↑ "Rochester breakthrough in laser science earns Nobel Prize". University of Rochester. October 2, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Physics Nobel prize won by Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland". The Guardian. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  10. ↑ ""Optical Tweezers" and Tools Used for Laser Eye Surgery Snag Physics Nobel". Scientific American. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  11. ↑ "Omega Laser Facility". Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  12. 1 2 "2. OMEGA Laser System" (PDF). Omega Facility Users' Guide (Report). Laboratory for Laser Energetics. 2014. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  13. ↑ "New laser unit called answer to power crunch". Schenectady Gazette. Rochester, NY. June 24, 1980. p. 3. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  14. ↑ S. P Regan; et al. (6 July 2016). "Demonstration of Fuel Hot-Spot Pressure in Excess of 50 Gbar for Direct-Drive, Layered Deuterium-Tritium Implosions on OMEGA". Physical Review Letters. 117 (2). American Physical Society: 025001. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.117b5001R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.025001. hdl: 1721.1/110482 . ISSN   0031-9007. PMID   27447511 . Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  15. ↑ "OMEGA EP Laser Dedication" https://www.lle.rochester.edu/media/about/timeline/25_Timeline_2008_09.pdf
  16. ↑ Waxer, L. J.; Guardalben, M. J.; Kelly, J. H.; Krushwitz, B. E.; Qiao, J.; Begishev, I. A. (2008). The OMEGA EP high-energy, short-pulse laser system. Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics. San Jose, CA, USA. ISBN   978-1-55752-859-9.
  17. ↑ Stoeckl, C.; Anderson, K. S.; Betti, R.; Boehly, T. R.; Delettrez, J. A.; Frenje, J. A. (2008). "Fast-ignition target design and experimental-concept validation on OMEGA". Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion. 50 (12): 124044. Bibcode:2008PPCF...50l4044S. doi:10.1088/0741-3335/50/12/124044.
  18. 1 2 "Omega Laser Facility Completes Record 25,000 Experiments | National Nuclear Security Administration | (NNSA)". Archived from the original on 2017-05-20. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  19. 1 2 "Maintaining the Stockpile - Department of Energy". nnsa.energy.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
  20. ↑ Energetics, University of Rochester - Laboratory for Laser. "Office of the Director - Laboratory for Laser Energetics". www.lle.rochester.edu.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.