ORION laser target diagnostics

Abstract

The ORION laser facility is one of the UK's premier laser facilities which became operational at AWE in 2010. Its primary mission is one of stockpile stewardship, ORION will extend the UK's experimental plasma physics capability to the high temperature, high density regime relevant to Atomic Weapons Establishment's (AWE) program. The ORION laser combines ten laser beams operating in the ns regime with two sub ps short pulse chirped pulse amplification beams. This gives the UK a unique combined long pulse/short pulse laser capability which is not only available to AWE personnel but also gives access to our international partners and visiting UK academia. The ORION laser facility is equipped with a comprehensive suite of some 45 diagnostics covering optical, particle, and x-ray diagnostics all able to image the laser target interaction point. This paper focuses on a small selection of these diagnostics.

The effects of plasma physics target shrapnel and debris plumes arising from early operations of the Orion laser

“…The ten LP and two SP beams are delivered Figure 2] for experiments. The chamber is equipped with a large number of plasma diagnostic instruments to measure the conditions produced by the interactions [9,10]. Many of the diagnostic sensor surfaces are closer to the target than the focusing optics that deliver the laser beams.…”