Issue 8 Archives - Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Photo of liquid crytals.

Liquid Crystal Plasma Mirrors: A Breakthrough for NSF OPAL

Researchers at LLE and The Ohio State University (OSU) have teamed together to develop renewable, liquid crystal plasma mirrors (LCPMs) to enhance the temporal contrast of the 25-PW pulses planned…

Close-up photograph of a cone0-in-shell photograph with a puff of air on a blue background

A Gentle Puff with a Big Impact: A New System Advances Cryogenic Target Technology

A new gas puffer system (GPS) is transforming how fusion scientists fill cryogenic targets, turning precise whiffs of deuterium gas into liquid fuel and opening the door to next-generation “wetted-foam”…

Photograph of FLUX SHG stage

FLUX: A Next-Generation Broadband Laser for Direct-Drive Fusion Experiments

A Next-Generation Broadband Laser for Direct-Drive Fusion Experiments A New Laser Concept to Mitigate Laser–Plasma Instabilities Achieving fusion in the laboratory has proven a grand challenge of science. At its…

BHx diagnostic on table in the Diagnostics Evaluation Lab.

The BHx Streak Tube: Enabling the Next Generation of Streak Cameras

February 23, 2026

Over the last several years, scientists and engineers at LLE have been developing the BHx streak tube, a cutting-edge instrument designed to capture changes in light on a trillionth-of-a-second timescale.…

3D rendering of light beams reacting to lenses and mirrors.

Enabling Ultraclean Pulses from Kilojoule-Class Lasers

February 23, 2026

NSF OPAL is a proposed future user facility at LLE that is intended to enable scientists to create and study matter under extreme conditions [1]. To study these conditions, NSF…

Computer-generated 3D image of a building.

New Mirror Technology for NSF OPAL

February 23, 2026

A future NSF OPAL laser user facility will require extremely large all-reflective optics estimated to weigh up to 1000 pounds using traditional solid substrates. Large beams are required to prevent…