Photo Gallery

Active Target Aids Beam Alignment

Cryogenic Systems Operator JoJo Cuenca takes a quality-control photo of the energized active target after its installation in a NIF target positioner. The active target consists of two reference CCD (charge-coupled device) video chips to acquire absolute beam positions on the target after alignment in the target alignment sensor. The CCDs contain the fiducials, or reference points, and the red illumination is used during alignment in the Control Room. Credit: James Pryatel

Advanced Radiographic Capability

The Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), a petawatt-class laser system to be used to diagnose NIF implosions, under construction in the NIF Target Bay.

Aligning the Target Positioners

NIF operators acquired simultaneous positioning stability for all three NIF target positioners—the TarPos, the cryogenic TarPos, and the dual-purpose Target and Diagnostic Manipulator (TANDM)—in the Target Alignment Sensor (TAS) during the December 2016 facility maintenance and reconfiguration (FM&R) period. This marked the first time three targets were simultaneously tested in the TAS, which is used to align NIF beams and targets to a common referenced coordinate system. The test was among nearly 360 tasks performed over the two-week FM&R period.

ARC Diagnostics

The Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), a petawatt-class quad of beams in NIF, will generate short bursts of X-rays to backlight high-density ICF targets and other HED experiments.

ARIANE X-ray Detector Update

NIF Target Area workers celebrate the successful installation of a new gate valve for the ARIANE gated x-ray detector. ARIANE (active readout in a neutron environment) measures x-ray output at yields up to about 10¹⁶ (one quadrillion) neutrons from Target Chamber Center. ARIANE uses gated microchannel plate technology adapted to operate in this neutron regime by moving the detector to a position just outside the Target Chamber wall. The new valve will enable ARIANE to collect unprecedented high-quality penumbral (partial illumination) data by increasing the signal by about 20 times from previous penumbral imaging diagnostic setups. This is an important step towards spatially resolved hot-spot electron temperature measurements on the NIF.

Big Foot Target Shot

This colorized image of a NIF “Big Foot” deuterium-tritium (DT) implosion was taken on Feb. 7, 2016. The open target shroud, the ablation of a magnetic recoil neutron spectrometer foil holder, and the neutron imaging system nose cone can be seen at 9:00. The hardened gated x-ray imaging diagnostics are at 12:00 and 3:00. This shot was the Inertial Confinement Fusion program’s first layered DT fusion implosion using the Big Foot strategy in a sub-scale diamond ablator. This design uses a shortened three-shock pulse and a thinner DT ice layer that puts the fuel and the diamond ablator on a higher adiabat (internal capsule energy) than previous designs. The 5.75-millimeter diameter hohlraum used a low gas fill (0.3 mg/cc) to limit laser-plasma instability and cross-beam energy transfer. Credit: Don Jedlovec.

Checking Target Vibration Response

Cryogenic Systems Operator John Mourelatos performs a quality-control check of a NIF target’s vibration response during closure of the cryogenic target positioner’s protective shroud in preparation for a wetted-foam liquid deuterium-tritium experiment (see “Solving the Challenges of Making Liquid-Hydrogen Targets”¹). Credit: James Pryatel.

Claddings for HAPLS Crystals

Target Fabrication engineering technician Jack Nguyen perfects the method of applying solid-state claddings to a surrogate amplifier crystal for the High Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System¹ (HAPLS) now under construction in Bldg. 381. HAPLS is being developed by LLNL for the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines² facility in the Czech Republic. HAPLS is designed to deliver peak powers greater than one petawatt (one quadrillion, or 10¹⁵ watts) ten times a second—equal to 300 watts of average power. The high average power is enabled through laser diode technology for the pump lasers, gas cooling techniques for short- and long-pulse amplifiers, and an advanced laser architecture—all developed by NIF & Photon Science researchers. Credit: James Pryatel

Commissioning the ATLAS Alignment System

In the Target Alignment System (TAS) Calibration Lab, TAS Manager Edwin Casco uses collimated light from an eye-safe lamp to verify alignment and clearances inside the new target alignment system TAS4. The new system was designed to operate with the NIF Advanced Tracking Laser Alignment System (ATLAS) (see ATLAS Laser Tracking System Will Speed NIF Alignment.¹) The red light is from light-emitting diodes used to illuminate NIF targets during alignment. Credit: James Pryatel

Fill It Up

In the NIF Target Bay, a technician fills a target’s fuel pellet with tritium, an isotope of hydrogen with two neutrons. Because the target capsule is smaller than a peppercorn, less than one milligram of "heavy hydrogen" (deuterium and tritium) fuel is used in NIF experiments.

First HAPLS Diode Array

Researchers celebrate the successful installation and operation of the first laser diode array for the High Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS). The laser diode arrays are used in the short-pulse diode-pumped solid-state laser LLNL is developing for the L3 beamline, part of the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic. When complete, HAPLS will be the world’s highest average power petawatt laser system.

Gas for NIF Targets

A NIF Cryogenic System technician takes measurements in the target positioner gas manifold. The gas manifold is used to purge air and fill NIF target capsules with gases such as helium and deuterium.

Inside an ARC Compressor Vessel

A technician checks the controls hardware in an Advanced Radiography Capability¹ (ARC) compressor vessel.When completed and fully operational, ARC will be the world’s highest-energy short-pulse laser, capable of creating picosecond-duration laser pulses to produce energetic x rays in the range of 50,000 to 100,000 electron volts for backlighting NIF experiments.

Inspecting an ARC Transport Mirror

Technicians inspecting an Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) AM6 transport mirror remove a particle for chemical analysis. The AM6 mirror is installed in the ARC parabola vessel before AM7, the off-axis parabola mirror. The parabola vessel focuses ARC’s quadrillion-watt beams on a backlighter target near Target Chamber center to produce an x-ray “movie” to diagnose NIF target implosions with tens-of-picoseconds resolution (see “NIF Petawatt Laser Is on Track to Completion”¹). Credit: James Pryatel

Inspecting the Final Optics

NIF Target Area operators inspect a final optics assembly (FOA) during a routine maintenance period. Each FOA contains four integrated optics modules that incorporate beam conditioning, frequency conversion, focusing, diagnostic sampling, and debris shielding capabilities into a single compact assembly. A three-week NIF Facility Maintenance and Reconfiguration (FM&R) period began on August 3, with a total of more than 235 tasks completed before target experiments resumed on August 26. Credit: Jason Laurea

Installing NBI Scatter Plates

Inside the NIF Target Chamber, Target Area operators install new scatter plates for the Near Backlighter Imager (NBI) during the three-week spring 2017 Facility Maintenance and Reconfiguration period, which ended on June 24. More than 200 tasks were competed, including several for shot rate and reliability improvements. The NBI is a diagnostic tool used to assess the coupling efficiency of NIF’s laser energy to an ignition target.

Modifying the Target Chamber

Target Area Operations technicians Anthony Ybarra and Sky Marshall enter the NIF Target Chamber on the Target Chamber Service System lift during a Facility Maintenance and Reconfiguration period. Their task was to modify the first wall panels at the polar diagnostic instrument manipulator (DIM) to provide the DIM with a greater range of motion. Credit: James Pryatel

NIF Drive Diagnostic

NIF Target Area Operation’s Bill Board replaces the “air” side of a drive diagnostic (DrD) on a quad of NIF beamlines. The DrDs measure the power and energy of the 192 laser beams entering the Target Chamber by “picking off” and sampling a fraction of a percent of laser energy. Each DrD has about 12 precision optics and sensors per beam, a total of more than 2,300 components that require periodic recalibration. The air side of the diagnostic (on the outer side of the vacuum-pumped Target Chamber) brings a reflection of the 3ω (ultraviolet) calorimeter into a special 3ω optical fiber coupler. This transports the 3ω beam samples to a multiplexed power sensor, located at middle left under the periscope mirror. Credit: James Pryatel

NIF Final Optics

Two of the 48 final optics assemblies (FOAs) that convert the wavelength of NIF’s beamlines and focus the laser light into the Target Chamber. The FOAs are the last element of the main laser system and the first of the Target Area systems. Each FOA contains four integrated optics modules (IOMs) that incorporate beam conditioning, frequency conversion, focusing, diagnostic sampling, and debris shielding capabilities into a single compact assembly (see Final Optics¹). Credit: Damien Jemison

NIF Target Bay

This dramatic image of NIF beamlines entering the lower hemisphere of the NIF Target Chamber, as seen from the ground floor of the Target Bay, was taken by NIF photographer Damien Jemison. Five exposures were taken to capture the range of light in the dimly lit Target Bay. Jemison used the high dynamic range (HDR) Efex Pro program to process the five images into a single photo of one of the most spectacular views in the facility. He converted the image to monotone to simplify the chaos while enhancing the drama, then highlighted the barely visible Target Chamber by adding its blue hue back into the image. "The end result is my artistic view of how I feel when standing face-to-face with the highest-energy laser in the world," Jemison said.

NIF Target Chamber

This view from the bottom of the chamber shows the target positioner being inserted. Pulses from NIF’s high-powered lasers race toward the Target Bay at the speed of light. They arrive at the center of the target chamber within a few trillionths of a second of each other, aligned to the accuracy of the diameter of a human hair.

NIF Target Chamber

On March 10, 2009, at 3:15 a.m., a 192-beam laser shot delivered 1.1 million joules of ultraviolet light to the center of the target chamber—the first time any fusion laser has broken the megajoule barrier (a megajoule is the energy consumed by 10,000 100-watt light bulbs in one second).

NIF Target Chamber

The interior of the NIF target chamber. The service module carrying technicians can be seen on the left. The target positioner, which holds the target, is on the right.

NIF Target Chamber

A service system lift allows technicians to access the target chamber interior for inspection and maintenance.

NIF Target Chamber

Temperatures of 100 million degrees and pressures extreme enough to compress the target to densities up to 100 times the density of lead will be created in the Target Chamber. Surrounding the target will be diagnostic equipment capable of examining in minute detail the arrival of the laser beams and the reaction of the target to this sudden deposition of energy.

NIF Target Positioner

Before each experiment, a positioner precisely centers the target inside the target chamber and serves as a reference to align the laser beams.

NIF Target Positioner

The target positioner and target alignment system precisely locate a target in the NIF target chamber. The target is positioned with an accuracy of less than the thickness of a human hair.

Preparing for the Target and Diagnostic Manipulator

Aboard the NIF Target Chamber lift, target area operators Sky Marshall and Rich Moore prepare to replace a section of the chamber’s first wall to accommodate the first of two new combination diagnostic instrument manipulator (DIM) and warm target positioners known as the Target and Diagnostic Manipulator, or TANDM. Along with the current target positioner (Tarpos) and cryogenic Tarpos, the third target inserter will enhance NIF’s efficiency by allowing the Cryo Tarpos to remain dedicated to growing cryogenically cooled target layers, while the other two target inserters alternate between cryogenic and warm target experiments. The work was part of a July 2015 NIF Facility Maintenance & Reconfiguration (FMR) period. The first TANDM will be installed in Fiscal Year 2016 and used as a target inserter, while the second one will come several months later and be dedicated to target diagnostics. Credit: James Pryatel

Pulse Compressor

NIF Senior Mechanical Technologist Drew Willard adjusts a pulse compressor, part of the optical parametric chirped pulse amplification laser system in LLNL’s Advanced Concepts Laboratory. This ultrashort pulsed laser system is used for laser technology research and development in small-scale proof-of-principle experiments. It also tests and qualifies the resistance of various types of optics to laser-induced damage, which quantifies and validates the operational limits of NIF’s Advanced Radiographic Capability¹ (ARC) laser system.
Credit: Jason Laurea

Qualifying a Target Alignment Sensor

The NIF alignment team installs the TAS3 Target Alignment Sensor in a vacuum chamber in preparation for qualification testing. The TAS is a precision optical device inserted into the Target Chamber center to facilitate both beam and target alignment. The sensor aligns the beams and target to a common referenced coordinate system (see “New Target Alignment Sensor Installed on NIF”¹).

Qualifying the New ARC Front End

The high contrast ARC front end team executes the qualification of the new front end in the offline test bed in Bldg. 381. The team includes laser technicians John Halpin and Tracy Budge, physicist Matt Prantil, electrical engineer Tom Spinka, optical engineer Leyen Chang, and Lead Scientist John Heebner. This qualification verified a major improvement in the temporal pulse contrast produced by the front end of the ARC (Advanced Radiographic Capability) laser system. This improvement is critical to enable amplified ARC pulses to be focused on targets without compromising target integrity before the main pulse arrives (see “New ARC Front End Proves Its Mettle”¹). Credit: James Pryatel

Replacing a Grating Debris Shield

Target Area Coordinator Kevin Hood replaces a grating debris shield (GDS) in a NIF final optics assembly. The GDSs protect the other final optics from target debris and diffract about 0.1 percent of NIF’s ultraviolet light into an energy diagnostic system. More than 90 percent of damaged GDSs are repaired in the Optics Mitigation Facility and returned to service. Credit: Juan Soto