OSE Seminar by OSE Alumnus, Dr. Patrick Rambo Sandia National Labs on Laser Development at Sandia's Z-Backlighter Facility
Departmental News
Posted: October 19, 2022
Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022
Time: 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Location: CHTM, Room 103
Abstract:
The Z-Backlighter Laser Facility at Sandia National Laboratories serves to support high energy density physics research in conjunction with Sandia's Z-Accelerator. Within the Z-Backlighter Facility, the main lasers include the multi-kiloJoule nanosecond-scale 527nm Z-Beamlet Laser (ZBL) system and the kilojoule-class picosecond-scale 1054nm Z-Petawatt (ZPW) system. The ZBL system has been utilized since its activation in 2001, with its core missions being laser-generated x-ray radiographic diagnostics on a variety of Z experimental platforms and fuel pre-heating in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) experiments. By comparison, the ZPW Laser was activated in 2007 for advanced high energy density physics research with a focus on higher photon energy laser-generated x-ray radiography. More recently, ZPW has been upgraded for increased energy and modified to flexibly operate either in its traditional broadband picosecond (0.5-100ps) mode via chirped pulse amplification (CPA) or in a narrowband nanosecond (1-3ns) mode bypassing the CPA.
Biography:
Patrick Rambo received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from Rice University in 1993 and his PhD in Optical Science from the University of New Mexico in 2000, with his thesis being titled “Laser-Induced Lightning”. Since 2000, he has been at Sandia National Laboratories working mostly at the Z-Backlighter Laser Facility on laser development and applications in high energy density science. At the Z-Backlighter, he was part of the teams there which activated the kilojoule-class Z-Beamlet laser for radiography and which developed the Z-Petawatt Laser system. In 2018, he became a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia.
