What makes laser glass the key to nuclear fusion?
Glass has unique technical properties, such as material homogeneity, that make it an ideal host material for the rare-earth ions that give optically-pumped lasers their power. The level of homogeneity and refractive index range determine the quality of an optical material – and SCHOTT is able to tweak and alter those qualities in a range of active laser glass products and components that can be tailored to fit the very unique and highly technical, optical and industrial needs, to exactly what the NIF needed for their laser.
The enduring resilience of BOROFLOAT® glass
SCHOTT’s floated borosilicate glass protects NIF’s valuable optics from debris. BOROFLOAT ® is not only exceptionally transparent, it is also mechanically, thermally, and chemically resilient – hence the perfect material to shield NIF’s optics from harmful debris during the laser shots. SCHOTT’s proprietary microfloat production process provides a material with excellent surface quality and BOROFLOAT®’s outstanding abrasion- and scratch-resistant qualities, ensure that the glass performs even in the most demanding industrial environments.
Manufacturability: The Bottom Line
There is no doubt that highly technical expertise in material science and engineering was critical to developing the laser glass that helped the NIF achieve ignition. But without an equally proficient expertise in glass manufacturing and production, that specialty glass would only go so far.
At its Duryea, Pennsylvania facility, SCHOTT optics experts pioneered a continuous melting process to create larger slabs of glass that could be cut into smaller pieces. Where previous processes only yielded one substrate per day, this new melting process resulted in a higher yield, thus enabling the NIF to increase the frequency of experiments.