Surface control and phase matching of large laser conversion optics are urgent requirements and huge challenges in high-power solid-state laser facilities. A self-adaptive, nanocompensating mounting configuration of a large aperture potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) frequency doubler is proposed based on a lever-type surface correction mechanism. A mechanical, numerical, and optical model is developed and employed to evaluate comprehensive performance of this mounting method. The results validate the method’s advantages of surface adjustment and phase matching improvement. In addition, the optimal value of the modulation force is figured out through a series of simulations and calculations.
This paper puts forward an adaptive optics (AO) mounting method of large aperture KDP frequency doubler used in high power solid state lasers. Integrated optomechanical theory is proposed and applied to verify the mechanical and optical performances of this AO method particularly. According to the thin plate theory and nonlinear optics theory, optomechanical model is developed. Then, the finite element method is employed to establish the numerical model and simulate the distortion process of the crystal plates under various boundary conditions. The results indicate that this AO method could correct the deformed surface and modify the phase matching condition significantly, which means the second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency will be improved as well.
Motivated by the demand to minimize the mount-induced wavefront aberration of the large-aperture laser transport mirror, a low-stress flexure mounting configuration is proposed. Specific optomechanical analyses, including theoretical modeling, numerical analysis and field experiment, are presented. The mechanical properties of the flexure support were studied specifically. Besides, the relation between the mounting forces and the root-mean-square of the gradients (GRMS) value of the mirror surface is studied. Then, the appropriate value of the bolt preload is set to 500N, with which the GRMS value is just 5.35 nm/cm. The results indicate that the flexure mounting configuration is indeed a feasible and promising method to solve the mount-induced distortion problem of large-aperture optics.
In high-power solid-state laser facility (SG-III), focusing laser beams into the target center with precision better than 50 microns (RMS) is dependent on the stringent specifications of thousands of large-aperture transport mirror units and is a huge challenge on the surface aberration control of mirrors. The current mirror’s mounting techniques with screw fastening loads has several engineering conundrums – low control precision for loads (higher scatter even~±30%), and low assembly-rectification efficiency (~100 screws). To improve the current screw-fastening method, a new-style flexure supports method, which has a wonderful performance on uniform control of the external loads and only uses ~30 screws, is proposed to mount the mirror (size: 610mm×440mm×85mm). With theoretical modeling and FEM analysis, the impacts of mounting loads on mirror’s surface aberrations are analyzed and discussed in detail, and the flexure supports system is designed. Finally, with experimental research and case studies, the proposed flexure supports method shows a powerful performance on even control precision of external loads with scatter even less than ±10%, which is a promising mounting process to replace the threaded fasteners mounting the large-aperture optics. These improvements can lay a foundation for mounting process consistency, robustness, and assembly-rectification efficiency of large optical component.
TM1-6S1 large aperture laser transport mirror is a crucial optical unit of high power solid-state laser in the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) facility. This article focuses on the low-stress and precise mounting method of large-aperture mirror. Based on the engineering practice of SG-III, the state-of-the-art and key problems of current mounting configuration are clarified firstly. Subsequently, a brand new low-stress mounting configuration with flexure supports is proposed. Opto-mechanical model of the mirror under mounting force is built up with elastic mechanics theory. Further, numerical methods and field tests are employed to verify the favorable load uniform capacity and load adjust capacity of flexure supports. With FEM, the relation between the mounting force from new configuration and the mirror surface distortion (wavefront error) is clarified. The novel mounting method of large aperture optics could be not only used on this laser transport mirror, but also on the other transmission optics and large crystals in ICF facilities.
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