Performance of the ASTERIX III high power iodine laser
For more than 500 shots the 1 TW iodine laser Asterix III has demonstrated high reliability for light-plasma-interaction experiments. Improved laser parameters and new measurements of light pulse properties are reported.
Advanced iodine laser concepts
The essential features of an advanced iodine laser are outlined. These are governed primarily by the proper choice of the stored inversion density of an amplifier and also by the means to enhance the energy extraction efficiency to values in excess of 50 percent. With these measures an amplifier chain with output energies in the kJ range and overall system efficiencies of almost 0.2 percent can be designed. This value is twice as high as that now achieved. As the laser-fusion experiments require a greater pulse duration variability than hitherto obtained, an oscillator pumped by an excimer laser is developed, allowing chain output pulse durations in the range from some 100 ps to several ns. The frequency conversion of iodine laser light by nonlinear interaction in crystals is also investigated.
What is an archival education?1
This article introduces the approach to Master's level archival education adopted at the University of Manitoba. It is intended as a contribution to the recently renewed discussion of graduate archival education in the UK and Ireland. The author maintains that recent major developments in the accessibility, uses, and very conception of archives powerfully underscore the distinctiveness of archival work. These developments foster continued collaboration between archivists and those in related professions such as records management, but, more importantly, reinforce their longstanding distinctiveness. The article discusses why and how the University of Manitoba has responded to the increasingly complex challenges facing archivists and archival educators in this evolving setting with an archival, conceptual, historical, and research-oriented curriculum.