Wang Y, Wang F, Zhang Y, Huang X, Hu D, Zheng W, Zhu R, Deng X. Polarization smoothing for single beam by a nematic liquid crystal scrambler.
APPLIED OPTICS 2017;
56:8087-8091. [PMID:
29047670 DOI:
10.1364/ao.56.008087]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2017] [Accepted: 09/11/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Polarization smoothing (PS) is a key approach to suppress laser plasma instabilities (LPI) in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. Here, we propose a liquid crystal (LC) PS element to realize single beam smoothing and demonstrate its smoothing effect, in principle, with a 2×2 LC polarization checkerboard, which reduces the laser intensity variation in the focal spot to 78.4%. LC PS elements, which have potential applications in high-power ICF laser drivers, have many advantages because they are easy to fabricate, cost effective, flexible, and large.
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