On December 5, 2022, an indirect drive fusion implosion on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a target gain G_{target} of 1.5. This is the first laboratory demonstration of exceeding "scientific breakeven" (or G_{target}>1) where 2.05 MJ of 351 nm laser light produced 3.1 MJ of total fusion yield, a result which significantly exceeds the Lawson criterion for fusion ignition as reported in a previous NIF implosion [H. Abu-Shawareb et al. (Indirect Drive ICF Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 075001 (2022)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.129.075001]. This achievement is the culmination of more than five decades of research and gives proof that laboratory fusion, based on fundamental physics principles, is possible. This Letter reports on the target, laser, design, and experimental advancements that led to this result.

Characterizing plasmas generated in the world’s largest and most energetic laser facility, the National Ignition Facility (NIF), is an important capability for experimentalists working to achieve fusion ignition in a laboratory setting. The optical Thompson scattering (OTS) laser has been de-veloped to understand the target implosion physics, espe-cially for under-dense plasma conditions. A 5w probe beams can be set up for diagnosing various plasma densi-ties. Just as the NIF laser with 192 laser beams are precisely aligned, the OTS system also requires precision alignment using a series of automated closed loop control steps. CCD images from the OTS laser (OTSL) beams are analyzed using a suite of image processing algorithms. The algorithms provide beam position measurements that are used to control motorized mirrors that steer beams to their defined desired location. In this paper, several alignment algorithms will be discussed with details on how they utilize various types of fiducials such as diffraction rings, con-trasting squares and circles, octagons and very faint 5w laser beams.

We report on the design, performance, and qualification of the injection laser system designed to deliver joule-level chirped pulse beamlets arranged in dual rectangular beam formats into two main laser amplifier beamlines of the National Ignition Facility. The system is designed to meet the requirements of the Advanced Radiographic Capability upgrade with features that deliver performance, adjustability, and long-term reliability.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world’s largest and most energetic laser experimental facility, with 192 beams capable of delivering 1.8 megajoules (MJ) and 500-terawatts of ultraviolet light to a target. To aid in NIF control system troubleshooting, the commercial product Splunk was introduced to collate and view system log files collected from 2,600 processes running on 1,800 servers, front-end processors, and embedded controllers [1]. We have since extended Splunk’s access into current and historical control system configuration data, as well as experiment setup and results. Leveraging Splunk’s built-in data visualization and analytical features, we have built custom tools to gain insight into the operation of the control system and to increase its reliability and integrity [3]. Use cases include predictive analytics for alerting on pending failures, analyzing shot operation critical paths to improve operational efficiency, performance monitoring, project management, and analyzing and monitoring system availability. This talk will cover the numerous ways we have leveraged Splunk to improve and maintain NIF’s integrated control system.

Orchestration of every National Ignition Facility (NIF) shot cycle is managed by the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS), which uses a scalable software architecture running code on more than 1950 front-end processors, embedded controllers, and supervisory servers. The ICCS operates laser and industrial control hardware containing 66 000 control and monitor points to ensure that all of NIF's laser beams arrive at the target within 30 ps of each other and are aligned to a pointing accuracy of less than 50 mu m root-mean-square, while ensuring that a host of diagnostic instruments record data in a few billionths of a second. NIF's automated control subsystems are built from a common object-oriented software framework that distributes the software across the computer network and achieves interoperation between different software languages and target architectures. A large suite of business and scientific software tools supports experimental planning, experimental setup, facility configuration, and post-shot analysis. Standard business services using open-source software, commercial workflow tools, and database and messaging technologies have been developed. An information technology infrastructure consisting of servers, network devices, and storage provides the foundation for these systems. This paper is an overview of the control and information systems used to support a wide variety of experiments during the National Ignition Campaign.

The Automatic Alignment system in the National Ignition Facility is responsible for aligning 192 laser beams using camera sensor images. This paper reviews some of the image processing algorithms that generate the crucial alignment positions.

The Advance Radiographic Capability (ARC) at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser system that employs up to four petawatt (PW) lasers to produce a sequence of short pulses that generate X-rays which backlight high-density inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets. ARC is designed to produce multiple, sequential X-ray images by using up to eight back lighters. The images will be used to examine the compression and ignition of a cryogenic deuterium-tritium target with tens-of-picosecond temporal resolution during the critical phases of an ICF shot. Multi-frame, hard-X-ray radiography of imploding NIF capsules is a capability which is critical to the success of NIF's missions. As in the NIF system, ARC requires an optical alignment mask that can be inserted and removed as needed for precise positioning of the beam. Due to ARC's split beam design, inserting the nominal NIF main laser alignment mask in ARC produced a partial blockage of the mask pattern. Requirements for a new mask design were needed. In this paper we describe the ARC mask requirements, the resulting mask design pattern, and the image analysis algorithms used to detect and identify the beam and reference centers required for ARC alignment.

The Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a petawatt-class, short-pulse laser system designed to provide x-ray backlighting of NIF targets. ARC uses four NIF beamlines to produce eight beamlets to create a sequence of eight images of an imploding fuel capsule using backlighting targets and diagnostic instrumentation. ARC employs a front end that produces two pulses, chirps the pulses out to 2 ns, and then injects the pulses into the two halves of each of four NIF beamlines. These pulses are amplified by NIF pre- and main amplifiers and transported to compressor vessels located in the NIF target area. The pulses are then compressed and pointed into the NIF target chamber where they impinge upon an array of backlighters. The interaction of the ARC laser pulses and the backlighting material produces bursts of high-energy x-rays that illuminate an imploding fuel capsule. The transmitted x-rays are imaged by diagnostic instrumentation to produce a sequence of radiograph images. A key component of the success of ARC is the automatic alignment system that accomplishes the precise alignment of the beamlets to avoid damaging equipment and to ensure that the beamlets are directed onto the tens-of-microns scale backlighters. In this paper, we describe the ARC automatic alignment system, with emphasis on control loops used to align the beampaths. We also provide a detailed discussion of the alignment image processing, because it plays a critical role in providing beam centering and pointing information for the control loops.

Four of the 192 beams of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) are currently being diverted into the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) system to generate a sequence of short (1-50 picoseconds) 1053 nm laser pulses. When focused onto high Z wires in vacuum, these pulses create high energy x-ray pulses capable of penetrating the dense, imploding fusion fuel plasma during ignition scale experiments. The transmitted x-rays imaged with x-ray diagnostics can create movie radiographs that are expected to provide unprecedented insight into the implosion dynamics. The resulting images will serve as a diagnostic for tuning the experimental parameters towards successful fusion reactions. Beam delays introduced into the ARC pulses via independent, free-space optical trombones create the desired x-ray image sequence, or movie. However, these beam delays cause optical distortion of various alignment fiducials viewed by alignment sensors in the NIF and ARC beamlines. This work describes how the position of circular alignment fiducials is estimated in the presence of distortion.

The current automation of image-based alignment of NIF high energy laser beams is providing the capability of executing multiple target shots per day. An important aspect of performing multiple shots in a day is to reduce additional time spent aligning specific beams due to perturbations in those beam images. One such alignment is beam centration through the second and third harmonic generating crystals in the final optics assembly (FOA), which employs two retro-reflecting corner cubes to represent the beam center. The FOA houses the frequency conversion crystals for third harmonic generation as the beams enters the target chamber. Beam-to-beam variations and systematic beam changes over time in the FOA corner-cube images can lead to a reduction in accuracy as well as increased convergence durations for the template based centroid detector. This work presents a systematic approach of maintaining FOA corner cube centroid templates so that stable position estimation is applied thereby leading to fast convergence of alignment control loops. In the matched filtering approach, a template is designed based on most recent images taken in the last 60 days. The results show that new filter reduces the divergence of the position estimation of FOA images.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) utilizes 192 high-energy laser beams focused with enough power and precision on a hydrogen-filled spherical, cryogenic target to potentially initiate a fusion reaction. NIF has been operational for six years and during that time, thousands of successful laser firings or shots have been executed. Critical instrument measurements and camera images are carefully recorded for each shot. The result is a massive and complex database or ‘big data’ archive that can be used to investigate the state of the laser system at any point in its history or to locate and track trends in the laser operation over time. In this study, the optical light throughput for more than 1600 NIF shots for each of the 192 main laser beams and 48 quads was measured over a three year period from January 2009 to October 2012. The purpose was to verify that the variation in the transmission of light through the optics performed within design expectations during this time period. Differences between average or integrated intensity from images recorded by the input sensor package (ISP) and by the output sensor package (OSP) in the NIF beam-line were examined. A metric is described for quantifying changes in the integrated intensity measurements. Changes in light transmission from the NIF main laser over the three year time-frame are presented.

The Advance Radiographic Capability (ARC) at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser system that employs up to four petawatt (PW) lasers to produce a sequence of short pulses that generate X-rays which backlight highdensity internal confinement fusion (ICF) targets. Employing up to eight backlighters, ARC can produce an X-ray "motion picture" to diagnose the compression and ignition of a cryogenic deuterium-tritium target with tens-ofpicosecond temporal resolution during the critical phases of an ICF shot. Multi-frame, hard-X-ray radiography of imploding NIF capsules is a capability which is critical to the success of NIF's missions. The function of the Centering and Pointing System (CAPS) in ARC is to provide superimposed near-field and far-field images on a common optical path. The Images are then analyzed to extract beam centering and pointing data for the control system. The images contain the confluence of pointing, centering, and reference patterns. The patterns may have uneven illumination, particularly when the laser is misaligned. In addition, the simultaneous appearance of three reference patterns may be co-incidental, possibly masking one or more of the patterns. Image analysis algorithms have been developed to determine the centering and pointing position of ARC from these images. In the paper we describe the image analysis algorithms used to detect and identify the centers of these patterns. Results are provided, illustrating how well the process meets system requirements.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) utilizes 192 beams, four of which are diverted to create the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) by generating a sequence of short laser pulses. This ARC beam after being converted to X-rays will act as a back lighter to create a radiographic movie and provide an unprecedented insight into the imploding dynamics and serve as a diagnostic for tuning the experimental parameters to achieve fusion. One such beam is the centering beam of the pre-amplifier module which due to a split path obstructs the central square alignment fiducials. This fiducial is used for alignment and also as reference for the programmable spatial shaper (PSS) system. Image processing algorithms are used to process the images and calculate the position of various fiducials in the beam path. We discuss the algorithm to process ARC split beam injector (SBI) centering images with partial fiducial information.

The Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) at the National Ignition Facility was developed to produce a sequence of short laser pulses that are used to backlight an imploding fuel capsule. This backlighting capability will enable the creation of a sequence of radiographs during capsule implosion and provide an unprecedented view into the dynamics of the implosion. A critical element of the ARC is the diagnostic instrumentation used to assess the quality of the pulses. Pulses are steered to the diagnostic package through a complex optical path that requires precision alignment. A central component of the alignment system is the image analysis algorithms, which are used to extract information from alignment imagery and provide feedback for the optical alignment control loops. Alignment imagery consists of complex patterns of light resulting from the diffraction of pilot beams around cross-hairs and other fiducials placed in the beam path. This paper describes the alignment imagery for two ARC automated alignment loops, and the image analysis algorithms used to extract information required for the operation of those loops.

The Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) currently under development for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) will provide short (1-50 picoseconds) ultra high power (>1 Petawatt) laser pulses used for a variety of diagnostic purposes on NIF ranging from a high energy xray pulse source for backlighter imaging to an experimental platform for fast-ignition. A single NIF Quad (4 beams) is being upgraded to support experimentally driven, autonomous operations using either ARC or existing NIF pulses. Using its own seed oscillator, ARC generates short, wide bandwidth pulses that propagate down the existing NIF beamlines for amplification before being redirected through large aperture gratings that perform chirped pulse compression, generating a series of high-intensity pulses within the target chamber. This significant effort to integrate the ARC adds 70% additional control points to the existing NIF Quad and will be deployed in several phases over the coming year. This talk discusses some new unique ARC software controls used for short pulse operation on NIF and integration techniques being used to expedite deployment of this new diagnostic.

he National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world's most energetic laser, having demonstrated in excess of 1.9MJ @351nm with Inertial Confinement Fusion pulse-shapes in July, 2012. First commissioned with 192 operational beamlines in March, 2009, NIF has since transitioned to routine operation for stockpile stewardship, inertial confinement fusion research, and basic high energy density science.The NIF design includes component placement and beam alignment tolerances to preclude laser beam clipping on components within the laser chain, indeed lengthy studies and analyses, including various statistical approaches, were done in the design phase as early as 1996. The margin between the available optical aperture and the beam was established to ensure, given beam centering variations and component placement errors, that we would achieve a confidence level such that even low-level clipping, which causes downstream modulation damage, would occur at an acceptably or even vanishingly low rate.With the completion of NIF and nearly 4 years of operational experience, it became apparent that we could increase the beam size to more optimally fill the available aperture, and gain an additional 5% to 10% or more energy and power delivered to targets. It was also shown that additional energy could be recovered by removing approximately 70% of our beam 'corner blockers' originally installed in May 2010 to prevent target-chamber 1 mu m counterpropagating light from leaking back through the extinction minimums at the corners of vacuum-loaded square optics. Subsequent analyses showed that only one and in some cases two of the corner blockers were really needed. Increasing the beam size was a challenging endeavor, however, as it fundamentally meant recommissioning the entire NIF laser chain to tailor all 192 beams to their specific available aperture, individual beam rotation (for the NIF square beam), beam centering offsets, change-out of the 48 front-end aperture (relay-plane "0"), and removal of 48 Laser Mirror #2 line replaceable units for corner-blocker removal. Some of this commissioning, such as tailoring beam sizes to their specific available aperture, had not been performed during the original commissioning. Furthermore, achieving this required precise diagnostics and rapid analysis of massive quantities of images and data in order to direct the changes and feed-back the achieved results. Completed on June 1, 2012, the beam area was increased by 7.5%, and was a significant contributing factor in NIF transitioning from a 1.6MJ laser to its present 1.9MJ capability