Glass Development Laser

1977:

To verify the ability of the original 24-beam OMEGA laser to reach its specified performance level, a one-beam prototype system, GDL (glass development laser), was built in the “new” LLE building in 1977. By 8 November 1977, GDL (right) was producing peak power levels in excess of 0.5 TW per beam in short pulses. GDL continued to operate for a variety of experiments including the first demonstration of high-efficiency frequency tripling, the first comprehensive series of 0.35-µm laser-matter interaction experiments, and the first series of NLUF experiments.

Shown left are Steve Kumpan and Jo Bunkenburg working on rod-amplifier development. Shown below is Bill Lockman, GDL operator, adjusting the pinhole of one of the vacuum spatial filters.