LLE > Past Quick Shots
International Laser Operations Workshop
LLE hosted the 7th International Laser Operations Workshop in October 2009. Laser operations staff from the major U.S., U.K., and French laboratories exchanged ideas to address common issues and safety concerns, and collaborated to develop best practices to benefit all Laser Facilities. Delegates from LLNL, LANL, SNL, AWE, RAL, CEA, and LULI participated.
Posted 10/27/09
International Laser Operations Workshop
LLE hosted the 7th International Laser Operations Workshop in October 2009. Laser operations staff from the major U.S., U.K., and French laboratories exchanged ideas to address common issues and safety concerns, and collaborated to develop best practices to benefit all Laser Facilities. Delegates from LLNL, LANL, SNL, AWE, RAL, CEA, and LULI participated.
Posted 10/27/09
FourBeams.jpg "OMEGA EP Four Beams Firing")
Amplifier Housings Light Up
as OMEGA EP FiresLooking southwest from the target area structure, amplifier housings are lit as OMEGA EP's four beams fire. With no bay lights on, the beamline structures are illuminated by the flash of light that energizes the laser amplifiers. The grating compressor chamber can be seen in the shadows at the right.
Posted 10/13/09
Summer High School Research Program
Participants in the 2009 LLE Summer High School Research Program with program director, Dr. Stephen Craxton. The Summer High School Research Program challenges high school students to explore research topics and careers under the tutelage of LLE scientists, engineers, and staff in a state-of-the-art environment. This year's program concluded last month with student presentations of their results at a symposium in the laboratory.
Posted 9/29/09
Grating Photomask
Colorful spectral dispersion is observed through diffraction from a multilayer-dielectric grating. Several large-aperture diffraction gratings are used to compress the pulse width of the OMEGA EP short-pulse laser beams. LLE is investigating high-damage-threshold grating designs and manufacturing processes to increase the energy delivered to target.
Posted 9/14/09
OMEGA EP Grating Inspection System
The final phase of installing the Grating Inspection System is shown inside OMEGA EP's Grating Compression Chamber. Two GIS systems will be used to perform detection scans of damage sites on both upper and lower tiled-grating assemblies fourth TGA. The image of TGA1 (left) is shown reflected off the Fizeau Selection Mirror (right).
Posted 8/31/09
Touring LLE
Students taking a tour of LLE look at the OMEGA EP Laser Bay from the Viewing Gallery. The students are working on the Multi-Channel Carbon Counter and studying under Dr. Stephen Padalino of SUNY Geneseo.
Posted 8/11/09
All Eyes on OMEGA EP
A panoramic view shown in 360 degrees of the OMEGA EP Target Bay facing the Target Area Structure.
Posted 7/28/09
Evaluating the Grating Tile
Full-aperture interferometry is an essential tool in characterizing large-aperture optics for OMEGA and OMEGA EP components. A grating tile manufactured by Plymouth Grating Laboratory (PGL) is shown being aligned for evaluation on a Zygo 18-in. phase-shifting interferometer and is also seen in the high-reflector, flat mirror.
Posted 7/14/09
Fabricating the Multi-Channel
Carbon CounterAfter being poured into a form for the counter's side shield, molten lead at 800°F is shown being "puddled," a process originally used to make steel from pig iron. During the process, cooled lead is heated, or torched in this case, liquifying it to sink and fill in any trapped air holes. At the same time, additional molten lead is being added to maintain the volume.
Posted 6/22/09
Dual Plasma Source System
The dual plasma source system is used in conjunction with an electron-beam deposition process in order to densify coatings and modify film stress, resulting in coatings with broad environmental stability. This process is currently under development in the Optical Manufacturing Group at LLE, and is shown here being tested with an argon plasma in the 72-inch coating chamber.
Posted 6/09/09
First Omega Laser Facility Users Group Workshop
The first Omega Laser Users Group Workshop, held 29 April–1 May 2009, attracted 110 researchers from 29 universities and laboratories and 4 countries. The purpose of the workshop was to facilitate communication and exchanges among the individual users and between the users and LLE. Almost 50 presentations highlighting on-going and proposed research experiments were given, most of which were presented by the 32 students and postdoctoral candidates in attendance.
Posted 5/22/09
LLE Featured in National Geographic
National Geographic magazine's special issue: Energy for Tomorrow: Repowering the Planet features an image from inside the OMEGA target chamber during a target shot. Repowering the Planet focuses on the current energy landscape and what it might look like in the future.
Posted 5/5/09
NLUF Jet Target
Photograph taken inside the OMEGA target chamber during an NLUF experiment led by a team from MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Employing proton radiography, the experiment studied jet formation using the target featured in the Quick Shot posted 3/25/09.
Posted 4/21/09
LLE Blood Drive
The LLE held a blood drive for the Red Cross. In all, 43 employees presented themselves for blood donation, resulting in more than double the expectation of usable units of blood.
Posted 4/06/09
NLUF Jet Target
A target used for an OMEGA NLUF experiment carried out by a team from MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center to study jet formation using proton radiography. The large, 20-mm-diameter, conical structure is used to shield the diagnostic systems from x-ray radiation generated by the laser beams that are used to form the jet in the foam cylinder behind the cone.
Posted 3/25/09
Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer
An LLE Laboratory Engineer and MIT graduate student remove the proton-sensitive recording media from the Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer, the primary fuel compression diagnostic for OMEGA cryogenic DT experiments.
Posted 3/10/09
Discovery Channel at LLE
A crew from the Discovery Channel prepares to film in the OMEGA Laser Bay. The director of photography is crouched down looking at the real-time feed, and the motion-control operator raises the camera into the air with the sound technician next to him.
Posted 2/24/09
OMAN's Last NIF Polarizer Run
The last of the spare NIF polarizer optics are coated in the 72-inch chamber. This marks the completion of an eight-year NIF large-optic coating production phase.
Posted 2/6/09
Two 2008 LLE Summer High School Research Program Participants
Named Intel SemifinalistsRachel Kurchin and Jay Amin were named semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search 2009. Kurchin, shown left with advisors Stephen Craxton and Mark Wittman, is a student at The Harley School. Amin, shown right with advisor Christophe Dorrer, is a student at Rush Henrietta Senior High School. The Science Talent Search is often referred to as the "Junior Nobel Prize" and is the country's most prestigious science scholarship competition.
Posted 1/16/09
First Joint OMEGA EP Experiments Between LLE and CEA/DIF
Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) team (left to right: Olivier Landoas, Jean-Luc Bourgade, and Cédric Courtois from DAM Ile de France, Bruyères le Châtel) participating on the first joint experiments on OMEGA EP for characterizing MeV photon generation under short pulse (0.6 ps) and powerful (0.5 PW) laser irradiation on a solid target (Au).
Posted 1/06/09
Neutron Time-of-Flight Detector
in FabricationThe lower housing of a neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) detector is shown shortly after being machined at LLE. The completed nTOF detector will be used to obtain ion temperatures from integrated fast-ignition experiments on OMEGA
Posted 12/09/08
Radiative Shock Hydrodynamics Experiments
A team from the University of Michigan carried out experiments on radiative shock hydrodynamics on OMEGA in October.
Posted 11/04/08
OMEGA EP Raises the Bar for Short-Pulse Energy on Target
On 16 September 2008, an OMEGA EP beamline irradiated a target with an energy of 1415 J in an 11-ps laser pulse. This energy is more than a factor of two higher than any previously obtained with a short-pulse laser system.
Posted 10/01/08
Inertial Confinement Fusion:
An IntroductionThe LLE has created a book for readers of all backgrounds to learn about and share the excitement of inertial fusion research. Visit the Publications page for more details and to download
a copy.Posted 9/12/08
Summer Research Program
High school student Rachel Kurchin (The Harley School) examines a spherical target inside a glass hohlraum. Rachel is one of 15 students participating in this year's LLE Summer High School Research Program. See next month's Around the Lab section for an in-depth look at the students' projects.
Posted 8/22/08
Off-Axis Parabolic Optic
The off-axis parabolic optic was installed onto the off-axis parabola inserter/manipulator at OMEGA port H7. The optic was installed for joint OMEGA and OMEGA EP shots in support of advanced ignition development.
Posted 8/11/08
OMEGA EP Sidelighter Path is Active
The second set of beam-delivery optics to the OMEGA EP target chamber was aligned and initial target shots were taken during the week of 30 June. The OMEGA EP target chamber is shown illuminated by the second-harmonic (527-nm-wavelength) green light generated when the high-intensity (>100 J in a 10-ps pulse) infrared laser hit the target. The final focusing optic, an off-axis parabola, is seen on the right-hand side of the image.
Posted 7/28/08
OMEGA EP Large Aperture Grating Tiling Development Team
A view of the entire OMEGA EP upper compressor inside the grating compressor chamber (GCC). The four tiled-grating assemblies (TGA's) are prominent in the right half of the picture. In the inset is the team that fielded two full-scale tiled-grating compressors in the GCC on OMEGA EP. Both compressors achieved less than 1 ps pulse width.
Posted 7/16/08
Captain Steven J. Loucks Retires
On Monday, 23 June 2008, coworkers and friends gathered to celebrate the retirement of Captain Steven J. Loucks, Deputy Director of the Laboratory, Director of the Engineering Division, and OMEGA Facility Director. Loucks has been with LLE since 1990.
Posted 7/07/08
NIF Preamplifier Module (PAM)
Arrives at LLEThe NIF PAM arrived at LLE for integration into the OMEGA EP Laser System.
Posted 5/21/08
