High-power regenerative Nd:phosphate glass amplifier.
A compact high-power regenerative Nd:phosphate glass amplifier is described which incorporates spatial filtering and full image relay techniques. Output energies up to 1.2 J at a pulse duration of 140 ± 10 psec (FWHM) and 3 J at 900 ± 70 psec (FWHM) are achieved in a smooth nearly flattop beam intensity profile. Even with present-day technology, this system could be scaled into a terawatt regime.
Mode-locked operation of a Nd:YLF laser and amplification in a Q-switched Nd:glass slab laser
A Nd:YLF laser pumped with a CW dye laser and acoustooptically mode locked at 38 MHz has an output power of 130 mW and a pulse length of 60 ps. Insertion of intracavity etalons and misaligning the mode locker allows for stable operation with a continuous range of pulse lengths from 60 ps to 4 ns. The 1.053- mu m emission permits amplification of these pulses in a Q-switched Nd:phosphate glass slab laser oscillator up to intensities limited by optical damage. >
Creating the Virtual Universe
Simulation software is important to our understanding of the universe. The intrinsic multiphysics aspects are spiced with a range of temporal scales and spatial scales, both of which cover more digits than are available in the standard hardware. This, together with the intrinsic chaotic nature of many physical processes, poses quite a challenge. To meet this challenge, researchers developed the Astronomical Multipurpose Environment (AMUSE). Instead of writing a suite of multiphysics solvers from scratch, AMUSE's developers coupled existing solvers for each physical ingredient. The result is a highly inhomogeneous collection of dedicated solvers with a homogeneous protocol that scales to supercomputers.