Growing Laser Crystals used in NUCLEAR FUSION!

Video Description

Episode 55 #optics #laser #nonlinearoptics #photonics In this episode, let’s look at growing non-linear crystals that can convert Laser Light into different colours, using a process called second harmonic generation. The crystals we will be looking at are the same crystals used in the National Ignition Facility, a Laser driven Nuclear Fusion experiment! Here is a superb paper on the National Ignition facility (takes time to load!): https://www.osti.gov/pages/servlets/purl/1256427 https://www.youtube.com/@LivermoreLab 1064 laser module： http://bit.ly/3ZTLKeZ Check out my other videos: https://www.youtube.com/leslaboratory​ Please don't forget to like, subscribe and comment for more great content! If you found this content useful, and would like to support this Channel, please consider supporting this work on Patreon: https://patreon.com/leslaboratory Or donate directly: https://paypal.me/leslaboratory Alternatively, please share this content on your social media platforms, it really helps the channel! In this episode, let’s look at growing non-linear crystals that can convert Laser Light into different colours, using a process called second harmonic generation. The crystals we will be looking at are the same crystals used in the National Ignition Facility, a Laser driven Nuclear Fusion experiment! Although non-linear crystals can be prohibitively expensive to manufacture, considerable research has been conducted into growing them at large scale and inexpensively, especially for large systems. One such system, is the national ignition facility. This is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion research device, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States. It is the largest and most complex Laser system in existence, with over 7,500 meter-sized optics, and 26,000 smaller ones. The facility itself takes up the space of 3 football fields and can deliver up to 2 Million Joules of ultraviolet light and 500 terawatts of peak power into a fusion target the size of a pencil eraser called a Hohlraum. This generates the extreme pressures and temperatures necessary to achieve nuclear fusion. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5 (Note, this does not factor in actual power consumption of the facility, an important omission by the popular press! Nonetheless a huge achievement! 1064 laser module： http://bit.ly/3ZTLKeZ Check out my other videos: https://www.youtube.com/leslaboratory​ Please don't forget to like, subscribe and comment for more great content! If you found this content useful, and would like to support this Channel, please consider supporting this work on Patreon: https://patreon.com/leslaboratory Or donate directly: https://paypal.me/leslaboratory Alternatively, please share this content on your social media platforms, it really helps the channel! 0:00 Intro 0:18 Second Harmonic Generation 0:43 Discovery of SHG 1:17 Expensive Exotic Materials 1:37 Research and the National Ignition facility 3:15 Potassium Di-Hydrogen Phosphate (KDP) 4:03 Growing KDP at home! 6:07 YAG Laser setup 6:57 Generating Green light from Infrared 8:21 Thanks to channel Supporters.