The fundamental role of Laser Operations is to ensure that the HELEN laser operates smoothly. Allied to this is an ongoing laser development programme, which seeks to improve HELEN system performance and provides the physics design for Orion, which is currently under construction at AWE.
Operations staff tune the laser, in terms of laser energy and temporal pulselength/shape, to meet the appropriate experimental requirements. The operators align the laser to target, set up appropriate laser diagnostics, fire the system and record data on shot performance.
In addition, Operations staff also perform routine maintenance of the laser systems, such as diagnosing faults as and when they arise and replacing or repairing faulty components. Laser development activities, where possible, take place in parallel to the experimental campaigns to maximise system availability.
The expertise in laser physics which resides within this team allows a continual rolling programme of incremental system improvements to be undertaken, such as changing the system architecture to multi-pass and converting the backlighter to operate as with chirped-pulse amplification (CPA).
Staff are also extensively involved in the laser physics design of Orion, with research topics including:
- Optical pulse generation
- Optical system design
- Laser chain diagnostics
- CPA physics
- Analysis of full system performance