| Title |
Path to Ignition at National Ignition Facility (NIF): The Role of the Automated Alignment System |
| Authors |
- B.P. Patel, A.A.S. Awwal, M. Fedorov, R.R. Leach Jr., R.R. Lowe-Webb, V.J. Miller Kamm, P.K. Singhpresenter
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
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| Abstract |
The historical breakthrough experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) produced fusion ignition in a laboratory for the first time and made headlines around the world. This achievement was the result of decades of research, thousands of people, and hardware and software systems that rivaled the complexity of anything built before. The NIF laser Automatic Alignment (AA) system has played a major role in this accomplishment. Each high yield shot in the NIF laser system requires all 192 laser beams to arrive at the target within 30 picoseconds and be aligned within 50 microns-half the diameter of human hair-all with the correct wavelength and energy. AA makes it possible to align and fire the 192 NIF laser beams efficiently and reliably several times a day. AA is built on multiple layers of complex calculations and algorithms that implement data and image analysis to position optical devices in the beam path in a highly accurate and repeatable manner through the controlled movement of about 66,000 control points. The system was designed to have minimum or no human intervention. This paper will describe AA’s evolution, its role in ignition, and future modernization.
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| Footnotes & References |
LLNL Release Number: LLNL-ABS-847783 |
| Funding |
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 |
| Paper |
download MO3AO05.PDF [2.276 MB / 7 pages] |
| Slides |
download MO3AO05_TALK.PDF [10.412 MB] |
| Cite |
download ※ BibTeX
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※ EndNote |
| Conference |
ICALEPCS2023 |
| Series |
International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems (19th) |
| Location |
Cape Town, South Africa |
| Date |
09-13 October 2023 |
| Publisher |
JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland |
| Editorial Board |
Volker RW Schaa (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany); Andy Götz (ESRF, Grenoble, France); Johan Venter (SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa); Karen White (SNS, Oak Ridge, TN, USA); Marie Robichon (ESRF, Grenoble, France); Vivienne Rowland (SARAO, Cape Town, South Africa) |
| Online ISBN |
978-3-95450-238-7 |
| Online ISSN |
2226-0358 |
| Received |
22 September 2023 |
| Revised |
07 October 2023 |
| Accepted |
14 November 2023 |
| Issued/td>
| 05 December 2023 |
| DOI |
doi:10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-MO3AO05 |
| Pages |
138-144 |
| Copyright |
 Published by JACoW Publishing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s), the published article's title, publisher, and DOI. |
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