The National Research Council (NRC) has strongly recommended the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) as one of NASA’s next two major space missions, to start in 2016 in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). LISA will study the un…
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently produced 10,400 Joules or 10.4 kiloJoules (kJ) of ultraviolet laser light in a single laser beamline, setting a world record for laser performance. In recent weeks NIF laser scientists also have used the first four NIF beamlines to set records for infrared and green single beam laser energies with 21 kJ and 11 kJ of energy delivered, respectively. NIF researchers focused this light into a special diagnostic system designed to provide precise measurements of laser beam quality and performance at these different frequencies.