2012:

To meet the demands of both the OMEGA and OMEGA EP lasers, LLE tests and refines its own design of a solid-state Pockels-cell driver. The motivation behind this new design is to replace the currently used pulsers that suffer from the degradation and ultimate failure of a thyratron electron tube–the single-action “closing” switch that performs the basic pulse-generation function within the current design.

A vital component in the OMEGA laser, a Pockels cell is an electro-optic crystal that, when a voltage is applied to it, rotates the polarization of laser light coming through the device. Depending on the voltage employed, the Pockels cell, combined with a polarizer, can either let light pass through unabated or completely reflect light, effectively establishing an optical switch. The operation of a Pockels cell requires timed rectangular electrical pulses from a special pulse generator, or pulser, with amplitudes ranging from hundreds of volts to tens of kilovolts and pulse widths from tens to hundreds of nanoseconds.

Shown here is Research Engineer Wade Bittle shown inspecting an all-solid-state Pockels-cell driver developed by LLE

2012:

A picosecond-pumped ultrafast optical parametric amplifier (UOPA) was deployed on OMEGA EP to enhance temporal contrast and to support additional user experiments.

Shown here is senior research engineer Rick Roides (left) and senior scientist Christophe Dorrer (right) working on a UOPA

2012:

On 21 May 2012 in Washington DC, Dr. Riccardo Betti, Professor and Director of the Fusion Science Center for Extreme States of Matter and Fast Ignition, University of Rochester, and Assistant Director for Academic Affairs at LLE, accepted the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu for research in fusion and plasma sciences. The E.O. Lawrence Award honors scientists for their exceptional contributions in research and development in support of the Department of Energy.

Shown here is the department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu (left) with Riccardo Betti

2011:

The heart of the Ultrafast Rochester Optical Streak System (UROSS) cameras used by the Omega Laser Facility is the streak tube. The cameras are used to diagnose the pulse shape on the OMEGA EP short-pulse, 1- to 100-ps beamlines.

Shown here is UROSS camera shown inside the short-pulse diagnostic package (SPDP) in the OMEGA EP Bay along with OMEGA EP system scientist Jie Qiao.

2011:

LLE ushered in a new frontier of plasma nuclear science at the Omega Laser Facility by measuring a nuclear scattering cross section more precisely than ever determined before with particle accelerators. “This is the first time a high-energy-density laser facility has been used to advance the field of nuclear physics,” said Dr. David Meyerhofer, LLE Deputy Director and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics & Astronomy. A research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and the University of Rochester worked on the project and published their findings in the 16 September 2011 Physical Review Letters.

Shown here is the OMEGA Target Bay containing the charged-particle spectrometer (CPS) used for n-D and n-T differential cross-section measurements