Current Trends in Laser Fusion Driver and Beam Combination Laser Systems Using Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Phase Conjugate Mirrors for a Fusion Driver

Abstract

Laser facilities in the world have been developing flash-lamp-pumped ultrahigh-energy solid-state lasers for fusion research and high-repetition diode-pumped solid-state lasers to act as commercial fusion drivers. A commercial laser fusion driver requires a high-energy beam with a total energy of several megajoules per pulse in several nanoseconds with a similar to 10-Hz repetition rate. However, current laser technologies have limitations in raising the beam energy when operating with a high repetition rate, which is necessary for a commercial fusion driver to function properly. The beam combination laser system, which that uses stimulated Brillouin scattering phase conjugate mirrors, is a promising candidate for a fusion driver because it can obtain both a high energy and a high repetition rate with separate amplifications. For the realization of the beam combination laser system, a self-phase control technique was proposed for the coherent beam combined output, and its principle was demonstrated experimentally.