Playing Cards

NIF Master Oscillator

NIF’s laser beams are born in the Master Oscillator Room as very low (billionth-of-a-joule) energy pulses. On their path to the Target Chamber, various systems amplify and control the beams to ensure that the energy is delivered exactly as designed for target experiments.

NIF Target Diagnostics

Researchers use some of the most sophisticated measuring instruments ever made to determine what happens inside the target during a NIF experiment.

NIF Control Room

The NIF Control Room is inspired by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. Control Room operators access data through a hierarchy of on-screen graphics menus.

Fiber Draw Tower

LLNL’s 8-meter-tall state-of-the-art draw tower can fabricate a variety of optical glass fibers ranging from 80 to 500 microns in diameter.

NIF Tritium Processing

NIF’s state-of-the-art Tritium Processing System collects more than 99.9 percent of the tritium that is used for experimental purposes in the Target Chamber.

Magnet Testing Station

Magnets are tested for use in laser-Compton light source technology, which enables production of mono-energetic gamma rays and x rays. High-energy gamma rays can detect isotopes of nuclear materials behind heavy shielding and study nuclear processes.

Inside the NIF Target Chamber

The Target Chamber, a sphere 10 meters in diameter, was assembled from ten-centimeter-thick aluminum panels that were pre-formed and then welded in place. It is covered with 0.3 meters of concrete that has been injected with boron to absorb neutrons from fusion reactions.

Hollow Core Fiber

In hollow core fiber (HCF) technology, laser light is primarily guided in the air in the empty core instead of by solid fiber material, enabling record-setting data transmission rates. LLNL researchers are working to limit propagation losses by developing “negative curvature” HCFs, in which the core boundary has a convex shape when seen from the center of the fiber.

Laser-Diode Pulsed-Power Array

The world’s highest peak-power laser-diode arrays, representing total peak power of 3.2 megawatts, are a key component of the Livermore-developed High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS). The diode arrays fire 10 times per second, delivering kilojoule laser pulses to the final power amplifier.

High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System

The High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS), developed by LLNL for installation in the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic, is designed to be capable of generating peak powers greater than one petawatt (1 quadrillion watts) at a repetition rate of 10 hertz, with each pulse lasting 30 quadrillionths of a second. This very high repetition rate is a major advancement over previous petawatt system technologies.

Large-Aperture Grating Fabrication

Multilayer dielectric diffraction gratings up to 1 meter in diameter are manufactured entirely at LLNL and optimized for a diffraction efficiency of greater than 90 percent.

NIF Target Chamber at Shot Time

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. Credit: Don Jedlovec

NIF Target Area Operations

Cryogenic System operators install a diagnostic adapter, or “snout,” in one of NIF’s target and diagnostic manipulators (TanDMs). The dual-use TanDMs were designed to provide better access for diagnostic exchanges than the existing diagnostic instrument manipulators, or DIMs. TanDMs enable diagnostic exchanges in less than one hour and “snout” exchanges in less than 20 minutes.

High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System

The LLNL-developed High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS) was installed in the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic in December 2017. HAPLS — the world’s most advanced and highest average power diode-pumped petawatt laser system — was designed, developed and constructed in only three years by LLNL’s NIF and Photon Science Directorate.

NIF Laser Bay

View of a NIF laser bay from above. Each of NIF’s two identical laser bays has two clusters of 48 beamlines, one on either side of the utility spine running down the middle of the bay. Credit: Damien Jemison

Inside the NIF Target Chamber with Target and Diagnostics

Computer-aided design (CAD) rendering of the center of the NIF Target Chamber showing the target positioner and target (left) and diagnostics inserted from above and on right.

Diode-Pumped Alkali Laser

LLNL’s unique diode-pumped alkali laser, or DPAL, is a new class of laser based on diode excitation of atomic alkali vapors that combines features of both gas and solid-state lasers.

NIF Target Bay and Gamma Reaction History Diagnostic

Technicians install the Gamma Reaction History (GRH) diagnostic on the NIF Target Chamber. Using Gas Cherenkov Detectors, the GRH measures the spectrum and time history of the emission of target-produced gamma rays during a NIF implosion.

Inside the NIF Roving Mirror Diagnostic Enclosure

Located at the end of Laser Bay 1, the Roving Mirror Diagnostic Enclosure enables NIF operators to send laser beams to precision calorimeters to calibrate the main laser energy sensors.

NIF Target Bay

The Target Bay is the “Grand Central Station” of the National Ignition Facility. A concrete silo 30 meters high and 30 meters in diameter, the Target Bay is filled with laser, diagnostic, and other utility/support equipment needed to conduct experiments safely and reliably.

Keyhole Target for Timing NIF Laser Shocks

Keyhole-style targets are used in shock-timing experiments to measure the strength (velocity) and timing of the shock waves from the laser pulse as they transit the capsule. In a keyhole target the deuterium-tritium fusion fuel and gas are replaced with liquid deuterium, and the interior of the capsule is made visible through the re-entrant cone below the hohlraum in the photo. The shock traveling through the ablator, and then the deuterium, is measured by a diagnostic called VISAR (Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector).

NIF Optics Mitigation Facility

NIF researchers have developed a method to mitigate optics laser damage using laser ablation of damage sites. The Optics Mitigation Facility uses four mitigation systems capable of performing the mitigation protocols on full-sized (430-millimeter) optics in volume production.

NIF Capacitor Bay

Four capacitor bays house NIF’s power conditioning system, which delivers 400 megajoules of stored electrical energy to the laser system’s 7,680 flashlamps.

High-Power Laser Diode Array

The world’s highest peak-power diode arrays are a key component of the LLNL-developed High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS). The system was installed in the ELI Beamlines Research Center in the Czech Republic.

NIF Preamplifier Beam Transport System A color-enhanced image of the inside of a NIF preamplifier support structure. The low-energy pulse from the NIF master oscillator is split and carried on optical fibers to 48 preamplifier modules (PAMs) for initial amplification and beam conditioning and shaping. The PAMs increase the energy by a factor of 10 billion to about 10 joules.

NIF Advanced Radiographic Capability

NIF Final Optics Assemblies

The Final Optics assemblies (FOAs) are the final stage of the NIF beamlines before they enter the Target Chamber. 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.

NIF Beamlines (Quads)

NIF’s laser beams travel through the beamlines in groups of four called “quads.” As the beams are propagated four times through the main amplifier and twice through the power amplifier, their energy is boosted to about four megajoules of infrared laser light.

NIF Final Optics Assemblies

NIF’s 192 beamlines connect to the Target Chamber, in groups of four called “quads,” through 48 Final Optics Assemblies (FOAs). The FOAs are symmetrically distributed around the upper and lower hemispheres of the Target Chamber so that the laser beams are optimally located to provide the proper orientation as they are directed toward the target.

Magnified Growing Damage Site on Fused Silica

Scanning electron microscope image of laser-induced damage on a fused silica surface. When damage sites render an optic inoperable, it is removed from the beamline, the damage is repaired in the Optics Mitigation Facility, and the optic is returned to service in a process known as the “NIF Optics Recycle Loop.”

Protective Shrouds Closing Around NIF Target

The metal shrouds at the end of the target positioner protect the fusion target during shot preparations, then swing open just before the shot is fired.

NIF Target Capsule

A NIF target capsule is about two millimeters in diameter, the size of a small peppercorn, and is filled with cryogenic (super-cooled) deuterium-tritium fuel. Target capsules can be made of plastic (CH), beryllium, or high-density carbon (diamond).

NIF Target Alignment Sensor

Livermore Computing Complex

LLNL is home to some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, capable of conducting quadrillions of calculations per second. Data from NIF experiments improve and constrain weapon simulation codes run on the Laboratory’s computers.

NIF Dante Diagnostic

NIF’s two Dante diagnostics are broadband, time-resolved x-ray spectrometers that measure the time-dependent soft x-ray power produced by the NIF lasers interacting with the hohlraum. The resulting data are used to calculate the radiation spectrum and infer the temperature of the radiation field inside the hohlraum. This information can be compared to hohlraum simulations to determine if the hohlraum and laser pulse are performing as designed.

NIF Hydrodynamic Data

Simulated radiograph of a supersonic jet of plasma formed via the interaction of a laser-driven shock with a density perturbation during a NIF hydrodynamic experiment.

NIF TARDIS Data

Image of diffraction data collected during a NIF Target Diffraction In-Situ (TARDIS) experiment. Used in NIF’s high energy density science and Discovery Science programs, the TARDIS experimental system provides important information on the characteristics of materials used in nuclear weapons as they age or are subjected to the immense pressures and temperatures of a thermonuclear explosion, as well as materials found in the center of stars and giant planets.

NIF Target Chamber

A service system lift allows technicians to access the Target Chamber interior for inspection and maintenance.

A NIF Target

NIF Laser Bay

Each NIF laser bay is 122 meters (400 feet) long and contains 96 beamlines. This side view of Laser Bay 2 shows the four-high laser transport beamline enclosures above the preamplifier support structure.

National Ignition Facility

Exterior of the NIF building at twilight.

NIF Laser Bay

Seen from above, each of NIF’s two identical laser bays has two clusters of 48 beamlines, one on either side of the utility spine running down the middle of the bay.

NIF Power Conditioning System

NIF’s Power Conditioning System is housed in four capacitor bays that store and release about 400 megajoules (million joules) of electrical energy for each NIF shot.

NIF Target Chamber

In June 1999, after careful preparation, a rotating crane hoisted the 287,000-pound Target Chamber and gently moved it to the Target Bay, a breathtaking event that took only about 30 minutes.

NIF Target Chamber

NIF Tritium Fill Station

The glovebox used by technicians to fill 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.

Laser Glass Production

Laser glass is the heart of the NIF laser system; it’s the material that amplifies the laser light to the very high energies required for experiments. To produce this glass quickly enough to meet construction schedules, Hoya Corporation, USA, and SCHOTT North America developed a new production process that converted raw materials into one continuously moving strip of high optical-quality laser glass. Once cooled, the glass was cut into pieces as it left the production system; the segments were then polished to the demanding NIF specifications. This novel, continuous melting process made meter-sized plates of laser glass at a rate 20 times faster, five times cheaper, and with two to three times better optical quality than with previous processes.

Inside the Main NIF Laser Amplifiers

NIF’s amplifiers are made of a phosphate glass that contains a chemical additive with neodymium atoms (Nd:glass). Neodymium-doped laser glass is the preferred gain medium for use in high-peak-power lasers for fusion energy research. The NIF laser system uses about 3,070 42-kilogram plates of laser glass. Each glass plate measures 3.4 by 46 by 81 centimeters (about three feet long and half as wide). The glass slabs are set on edge at a specific angle, known as Brewster’s angle, so that the laser beams have very low reflective losses while propagating through the glass.

NIF Deformable Mirror

Deformable mirrors, located at the ends of the NIF main amplifiers, use an array of 39 actuators to create a movable surface that corrects aberrations in a beam due to minute distortions in the optics.

Growing Crystals for NIF Optics

NIF requires some 480 optics produced from large single crystals of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) and deuterated KDP (DKDP). These crystals have special optical properties, like prisms, that transmit, refract, and break light up into its colors like those in a rainbow.

NIF Wedged Final Focus Lens

Optics for the National Ignition Facility must be manufactured to exacting standards. To ensure quality, precise measurements are taken on all types of small and large optics using a variety of instruments. Before optics like this focus lens are installed into the beampath, they undergo precision cleaning and have an antireflection coating applied.

NIF Final Optics Inspection System