TIR-1 carbon dioxide laser system for fusion

During recent years pulsed CO(2) lasers for fusion research have been under construction in the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy and the D. V. Efremov Electro-Physical Apparatus Institute. Efforts are being concentrated at present on two approaches: (1) microsecond laser pulse plasma heating in solenoids and theta pinches (UTRO system) and (2) nanosecond CO(2) laser utilization for inertial confinement fusion. The TIR-1 system was created to develop nanosecond CO(2) laser technology and to study laser-target interaction at 10 microm. This system is designed to deliver ~1-kJ energy in one beam of ~l-nsec duration. The TIR-1 system consists of an oscillator-preamplifier system that produces an ~1-nsec laser pulse with an energy contrast ratio of ~10(6), a large-aperture (30 x 30-cm(2)) triple-pass amplifier capable of providing approximately 1 kJ in a 1-nsec pulse, a target chamber with diagnostic equipment, and associated engineering systems.