Energy Storage Options for Shiva Upgrade

The Shiva Glass Laser at LLL will use 20-25 MJ of Capacitive energy storage. An improved laser system is proposed that will increase this energy requirement by a factor of ten: 25 MJ for Faraday rotators, and 150 MJ for flashlamps. This paper discusses alternative options to capacitors for driving both types of loads. Included are homopolar generators that discharge in 0.1 sec that will drive Faraday rotators directly. Similar generators can be used to drive inductive stores for flashlamp power. The features of the flashlamp system include a wide distribution of 10kJ load elements, and a half-millisecond discharge time requirement. The possibilities of providing open-switching for inductive storage and of driving many flashlamps in parallel are discussed. See also ADM002371. Published in 2013 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Digest of Technical Papers 1976-2013, and Abstracts. Presented at the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science Held in San Francisco, CA on 16-21 June 2013. U.S. Government or Federal Purpose Rights License.