PRODUCTION OF HIGH-ENERGY, UNIFORM FOCAL PROFILES WITH THE NIKE LASER

Nike, a KrF laser facility at the Naval Research Laboratory, is design ed to produce high intensity, ultra-uniform focal profiles for experim ents relating to direct drive inertial confinement fusion. We present measurements of focal profiles through the next-to-last amplifier, a 2 0 X 20 cm(2) aperture electron beam pumped amplifier capable of produc ing more than 120 J of output in a 120 ns pulse. Using echelon free in duced spatial incoherence beam smoothing this system has produced foca l profiles with less than 2% tilt and curvature and less than 2% rms v ariation from a flat top distribution.