Large-aperture laser-resistant mirrors are required for the construction of the National Ignition Facility, a 1.8 MJ laser. In order to fabricate the 1408 mirrors, a development program was started in 1994 to improve coating quality, manufacturing rate, and lower unit cost. New technologies and metrology tools were scaled to meter size for facilitization in 1999 at Spectra-Physics and the Laboratory of Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. Pilot production, to fabricate 5-10% of each component, commenced in 2001 and full production rates were achieved in 2002. Coating production will be completed in 2008 with the coating of 460 m~2 of high-damage-threshold precision coatings on 100 tons of BK7 glass with yields exceeding 90%.
展开▼
