Research on performance promotion of plasma electrode Pockels cell
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摘要: 等离子体电极普克尔盒被广泛应用于大型激光驱动器中,用于抑制自激振荡、实现多程放大控制和反激光隔离,普克尔盒内的放电电极在长期使用过程中与腔内残余O2发生反应出现退化现象,导致稳定性下降,寿命降低。为此,提出了封离型等离子体电极普克尔盒,其放电腔内的Ne气浓度可达99.9%,漏率小于1.0×10−10 Pa ∙ m3∙s−1,理论使用年限大于40年。实验表明,封离型等离子体电极普克尔盒在工作20万发次后,其放电电极依然光亮如新,时间抖动仍稳定在6.4 ns附近,稳定性有了大幅提升。Abstract: A sealed plasma electrode pockels cell (PEPC) has been developed for use on the petawatt and exawatt class laser system that can be used in high-contrast optical switch, as required for suppression of self-oscillation, isolation from retroreflected pulses, and control of output beams. The initial concentration of Ne in the discharge cell is more than 99.9%, which prevents the discharge electrodes from reacting with O2 comparing with unsealed PEPC. The theoretical lifetime of the sealed PEPC is more than 40 years as the leak rate of the sealed PEPC is smaller than 1.0×10−10 Pa∙m3∙s−1. The experimental results show that, the discharge electrodes in the sealed PEPC are still as fresh as new after firing 200,000 times and the time jitter is still below 6.4 ns.
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Key words:
- electro-optical switch /
- plasma electrode /
- Pockels cell /
- gas discharge /
- sealed switch
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表 1 封离型PEPC测量漏率
Table 1. Leak rate of sealed PEPC
No. leak rate/(Pa∙m3∙s−1) No. leak rate/(Pa∙m3∙s−1) ZJ01 1.0×10−10 ZJ06 1.2×10−13 ZJ02 1.3×10−13 ZJ07 5.0×10−11 ZJ03 1.5×10−13 ZJ08 1.2×10−13 ZJ04 8.0×10−13 ZJ09 3.0×10−11 ZJ05 8.0×10−12 ZJ10 1.8×10−13 -
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