We have developed a new approach to constructing large aperture optical switches for next generation inertial confinement fusion lasers. A transparent plasma electrode formed in low pressure ionized gas acts as a conductive coating to allow the uniform charging of the optical faces of an electro-optic material. In this manner large electric fields can be applied longitudinally to large aperture, high aspect ratio Pockels cells. We propose a four-electrode geometry to create the necessary high conductivity plasma sheets, and have demonstrated fast (less than 10 nsec) switching in a 5x5 cm aperture KD*P Pockels cell with such a design. Detaid modelling of Pockels cell performance with plasma electrodes has been carried out for 15 and 30 cm aperture designs.

The Spheromak is a magnetic confinement device that is being explored in both the US and Japanese fusion programs. It is a member of the Compact Torus family of magnetic structures characterized by a set of closed, nested toroidal flux surfaces but without any coils, transformer cores, etc. protruding through the hole in the torus. The Speromak is closely elated to the Reversed Field Pinch (RFP) in that most of the magnetic field is produced by plasma currents flowing along the magnetic field lines (a near force free field) rather than by external coils. The Spheromak has magnetic field components of comparable strength in both the toroidal (azimuthal) and poloidal (in the plane perpendicular to the azimuthal unit vector) directions. The large internal magnetic energy in the Spheromak makes it rich in magnetohydrodynamic phenomena and reconnection, in particular, plays an important role in the formation, resistive decay and instability processes.