A megajoule class krypton fluoride amplifier for single shot, high gain ICF application

A design study is underway to define the optimal architecture for a KrF laser system which will deliver 10 MJ of 248-nm light to an ICF target. The authors present one approach which incorporates final power amplifiers in the megajoule class, achieving 10 MJ with only four final amplifiers. Each double-pass laser amplifier employs two-sided electron-beam pumping of the laser gas medium. Analysis of the design is based on a Monte-Carlo electron-beam deposition code, a one-dimensional, time-dependent kinetics code, and pulsed power circuit modeling. Linear dimensions of the amplifier\u0027s extracted gain volume are 6.25 m in height and length and 5.12 m in width. Each amplifier handles 160 angularly multiplexed laser channels. The one-amagat, krypton-rich laser medium is e-beam pumped at 60 kW cm/sup -3/ (4 MA at 3.3 MV) over the 2-microsecond duration of the laser beam pulse train.