High-energy, high-average-power laser with Nd:YLF rods corrected by magnetorheological finishing

Bagnoud, V.; Guardalben, M. J.; Puth, J.; Zuegel, J. D.; Mooney, Ted; Dumas, Paul

doi:10.1364/ao.44.000282

Cited by 52 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Each separate half is then ground from the inside and outside of the half -block to the appropriate dimensions of a slab. A laserquality conventional polish is put onto one side of the slab and magneto -rheological fi nishing ( MRF ) [28,29] is performed on the other side to compensate for any distortions in the transmitted wavefront of the slab. Distortions in the laser beam can result in damage of the slab or damage of the optics downstream from the gain medium during laser operation.…”

Section: Slab Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Material Development for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE)

Schaffers

Bayramian

Menapace

et al. 2010

Crystal Growth Technology

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Section: Slab Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Material Development for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE)

Schaffers

Bayramian

Menapace

et al. 2010

Crystal Growth Technology

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“…Successful operation of an OPCPA system depends critically on the performance of the pump laser, since many characteristics of the pump laser are transferred to the amplified signal beam, including the spatial-and temporal-intensity profiles. The pump laser wavefront quality is of particular importance, since excessive wavefront gradients will cause phase mismatching of the OPCPA process that can reduce efficiency and degrade the beam quality Bagnoud et al found that one of the leading wavefront quality drivers of their system was the quality of the Nd:YLF amplifier rods [5]. They employed an innovate use of MRF to compensate for the inhomogeneity of the crystal structure.…”

Section: Laser Rod Correctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications and benefits of "perfectly bad" optical surfaces

Dumas

Pisarski

2008

SPIE Proceedings

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The design and manufacture of most optical systems revolves around the use of ideal optical surfaces. "Perfect" spheres or flats are optimally combined and toleranced during the design phase, and the manufacturers attempt to get as close as possible to these perfect optical surfaces during fabrication. One reason for this stems from the inherent capabilities of the industry's oldest and most pervasive polishing tool: the full-aperture lap. The shape and motion of these tools naturally produce spherical or flat geometries. More recently, a number of new manufacturing technologies based on sub-aperture polishing tools have become available. Sub-aperture tools enable local, preferential removal: a controlled way to polish more material at some locations and less at others. Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF®) is one such sup-aperture polishing technology, and when combined with an accurate measurement, can offer a precise method for converging to the perfect surface: local removal based directly on measured surface height. This capability, however, can also be leveraged in other, more creative, ways. For example, by replacing the typical surface-error measurement by a transmitted wavefront measurement of an entire low-field optical system, a hitmap can be created for one surface in the system that will perfectly compensate for errors of all the other surfaces. This paper will explore a number of examples where "perfectly bad" surfaces have been exploited in actual optical systems to improve performance, improve manufacturability, or reduce cost. In addition, we will ask the question: if making a "perfectly bad" surface was as easy as making a perfectly good one, would this capability be used more widely by the precision optics industry?

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“…Wavefront compensation by MRF has been performed on a 12-cm-long, 1-in.-diam Nd:YLF laser rod used in a laser amplifier [4]. Surface modulations have been detected using a collimated HeNe laser reflected from the surface reimaged on a CCD camera set on a translation stage to modify the distance between the surface under test and the detection plane.…”

Section: Experimental Phase Reconstruction: Application To Magnetorhementioning

confidence: 99%