Comments About NPL Research in the United States

A brief historic outline of NPL developments to date in the United States is given in Table 13.1. Clearly, parallel developments were achieved in Russia, and a history of these developments is discussed in previous chapters. Also, the history of early developments in the United States has been detailed in several review articles [1, 2, 1013], so only the highlights of these earlier studies will be given on here before turning to more recent developments.

The first demonstration of an NPL was in 1974, when a y-ray-driven laser pumped by a thermonuclear explosion was reported [14, 15]. To distinguish the work focused on here from such experiments, some researchers have proposed the term reactor-pumped lasers (RPLs), but this discussion will continue to use the traditional NPL terminology. A similar concept using a fission reactor had been proposed as early as 1963 by Lloyd Herwig, who analyzed a CO2 laser approach [16, 17]. Despite attempts by several groups to demonstrate pumping of gases such as CO2, the first successful NPL was not achieved until 1975, when lasing of CO using a fast-burst reactor was reported at Sandia National Laboratories [7]. Since then, some 20 different experimental NPLs have been reported by groups at Sandia, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), NASA Langley Research Center, and the Universities of Illinois, Missouri, and Florida.

Table 13.1 Highlights of NPL research in the United States

Dates

Event

Laboratory

1963

CO2 NPL proposed

United Aircraft Labs

1974­

1975

CO laser achieved

Sandia National Labs

1974­

1975

3.51-|tm Xe laser achieved

University of Florida/ LANL

1975­

1977

Low-threshold impurity lasers achieved

University of Illinois

1976

Neutron feedback ICF proposed

University of Illinois

1977

He-Hg laser (first visible NPL)

University of Illinois/ Sandia

1977­

1981

Extensive noble gas laser experiments/theory

NASA-Langley

1978

First nuclear pumped gain in excimer (XeF) reported

University of Illinois

1981

1-kW “box”-type He-Ar NPL operated

NASA-Langley

1983

First nuclear pumping of O2 (! Д)

University of Illinois

1984­

1988

Gain measurements in XeF at high flux

Sandia National Labs

1987­

1989

5-MJ NPL ICF target facility design

University of Illinois

1989

High-gain He-Ar-Xe (2.03 |tm) studies

Sandia National Labs

1991

First nuclear-pumped flashlamp laser achieved (XeBr-I2)

University of Illinois

1992

Visible 3He-Ne-H2 NPL achieved

University of Illinois

Note: Table covers period up to 1993 as summarized; little work was done in the field after 1993, from several review articles [1, 2, 1013]