Nike laser
Encyclopedia
United States Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps and conducts a program of scientific research and development. NRL opened in 1923 at the instigation of Thomas Edison...
in Washington, DC is a 56 beam, 4-5 kJ per pulse electron beam pumped krypton fluoride
Krypton fluoride laser
A krypton fluoride laser is a particular type of excimer laser, which is sometimes called an exciplex laser. With its 248 nanometer wavelength, it is a deep ultraviolet laser which is commonly used in the production of semiconductor integrated circuits, industrial micromachining, and scientific...
excimer laser
Excimer laser
An excimer laser is a form of ultraviolet laser which is commonly used in the production of microelectronic devices , eye surgery, and micromachining....
which operates in the ultraviolet at 248 nm with pulsewidths of a few nanoseconds. Nike was completed in the late 1980s and is used for investigations into inertial confinement fusion
Inertial confinement fusion
Inertial confinement fusion is a process where nuclear fusion reactions are initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a pellet that most often contains a mixture of deuterium and tritium....
. By using a KrF laser with induced spatial incoherence (ISI) optical smoothing, the modulations in the laser focal profile (beam intensity anisotropy) are only 1% in one beam and < 0.3% with a 44-beam overlap. This feature is especially important for minimizing the seeding of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities in the imploding fusion target capsule plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
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See also
- United States Naval Research LaboratoryUnited States Naval Research LaboratoryThe United States Naval Research Laboratory is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps and conducts a program of scientific research and development. NRL opened in 1923 at the instigation of Thomas Edison...
- Excimer laserExcimer laserAn excimer laser is a form of ultraviolet laser which is commonly used in the production of microelectronic devices , eye surgery, and micromachining....
- Krypton fluoride laserKrypton fluoride laserA krypton fluoride laser is a particular type of excimer laser, which is sometimes called an exciplex laser. With its 248 nanometer wavelength, it is a deep ultraviolet laser which is commonly used in the production of semiconductor integrated circuits, industrial micromachining, and scientific...
- List of laser types