| Popis: |
The primary alternative laser architecture is the U-turn design. The U-turn has significantly different cost and performance risks than the full-aperture switch, which makes it a highly desirable alternative. The U-turn was conceived at LLNL in 1992. A similar concept, the L-turn had already been discovered by the French at CEL-V. Both concepts are based on the multipass glass amplifier design, but the full-aperture Pockels cell and polarizer are replaced with smaller and less expensive optics. Eliminating the large switch and polarizer not only reduces component costs, it also provides options for shortening the laser which, in turn, could reduce the size and cost of the laser building. Efficient use of the amplifier aperture (small vignetting allowance) requires that the U-turn have a long transport spatial filter; however, this is not a disadvantage if a long spatial filter is already required for image relaying to the frequency converter. Given a long spatial filter, the U-turn is potentially more efficient because losses in the switch and polarizer are avoided. |
