Multisegment Nd:glass amplifiers for the National Ignition Facility and the French Laser Megajoule

Summary form only given. In this paper, we describe the Nd:glass laser amplifier mechanical design and report the results of both modeling and experiments in support of NIP and LMJ amplifier development. Gain measurements performed on a 2/spl times/2 multisegment amplifier using 4.3-cm-bore flashlamps have demonstrated 3% storage efficiencies. Ray-trace calculations agree well with the measured gain distributions.