The omega high-power phosphate-glass system: Design and performance

A 24-beam phosphate-glass laser system has been built and tested. Major design features include Nd:phosphate glass, rod amplifiers up to 90 mm diameter, propagation of circularly polarized light, extensive image relaying and spatial filtering, utilization of large-aperture Pockels cells (PC's) hard-aperture (HA) input and polarizing beamsplitters for beam balance. The system has demonstrated focusable power in excess of 12 terawatts (TW) in 50 ps (FWHM) and over 1.75 kJ in 300 ps (FWHM). The pulse is near-diffraction limited with a peak-to-background energy contrast of 10
⁸
. Shot rates have exceeded 2/h. A detailed description of the system design and performance is presented.