A VERSATILE HIGH PULSE ENERGY SUBNANOSECOND LASER SOURCE FOR REMOTE PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS

IT IS PLANNED IN PHASE I TO DEVELOP A HIGH PULSE ENERGY SUB-NANOSECOND LASER SOURCE THAT CAN BE USED FOR A THOMPSON-LIDAR BACKSCATTERING DIAGNOSTIC TO MAP ELECTRON TEMPERATURE AND DENSITY IN LARGE-SCALE FUSION PLASMAS. THE SOURCE IS CAPABLE OF OPERATION AT REPETITION RATES OF 10 HZ AND HIGHER. THIS CAN INCREASE BY AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE THE AMOUNT OF CRITICAL DATA THAT CAN BE OBTAINED FROM A SINGLE TOKAMAK EXPERIMENT. THE PLANNED SOURCE WILL USE HIGH PULSE ENERGY ALEXANDRITE LASER TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS. TO DATE THERE HAS BEEN NO SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY TO SUB-NANOSECOND, HIGH ENERGY PULSES. THE DEVELOPMENT EFFORT IS NOT NECESSARILY STRAIGHTFORWARD. HOWEVER, SINCE THE PROPOSED HIGH INTENSITY SOURCE IS BOTH SIMPLE AND TUNABLE IT CAN BE USED TO GENERATE LIGHT AT ALMOST ANY WAVELENGTH BY NONLINEAR PROCESSES. CONSEQUENTLY, THE SAME LASER SOURCES, OR A REDUCED PULSE ENERGY VERSION OF THEM, CAN BE USED TO GENERATE TUNABLE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT FOR PROBING ATOMIC AND IONIC DENSITIES IN LABORATORY SCALE PLASMA EXPERIMENTS.