We have explored the major technical and conceptual issues relating to the suitability of a diode-pumped solid state laser as a driver for an inertial fusion energy power plant. While solid state lasers have long served as the workhorse of inertial confinement fusion physics studies, the deployment of a driver possessing adequate efficiency, reliability, and repetition rate for inertial fusion energy requires the implementation of several technical innovations discussed in this article.

In our application, dichroics in a high average power, near-infrared, laser system have short operating lifetimes. These dichroics were used as the resonator fold mirrors and permitted the transmission of the pumping argon (Ar) ion laser light. Representative samples of two different dichroic optics were taken off-line and the transmission performance monitored in various scenarios. Irradiating these optics under resonator vacuum conditions, ({le}1 mT, 11.7 kW/cm{sup 2}, Ar laser running all wavelengths) resulted in a degradation of transmission with time. Irradiating these optics in a rarefied oxygen atmosphere (1 to 10 T of oxygen, 11.7 kW/cm{sup 2}, Ar laser running all wavelengths) the transmission remained steady over a period of days. The transmission loss observed in the optic tested in vacuum was somewhat reversible if the optic was subsequently irradiated in a rarefied oxygen atmosphere. This reversibility was only possible if the transmission degradation was not too severe. Further tests demonstrated that an atmosphere of 10 T of air also prevented the transmission degradation. In addition, tests were performed to demonstrate that the optic damage was not caused by the ultra-violet component in the Ar ion laser. Mechanisms that may account for this behavior are proposed.

The TREAT Facility was designed and built in the late 1950s at Argonne National Laboratory to provide a transient reactor for safety experiments on samples of reactor fuels. It first operated in 1959. Throughout its history, experiments conducted in TREAT have been important in establishing the behavior of a wide variety of reactor fuel elements under conditions predicted to occur in reactor accidents ranging from mild off normal transients to hypothetical core disruptive accidents. For much of its history, TREAT was used primarily to test liquid-metal reactor fuel elements, initially for the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II), then for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF), the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Plant (CRBRP), the British Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR), and finally, for the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR). Both oxide and metal elements were tested in dry capsules and in flowing sodium loops. The data obtained were instrumental in establishing the behavior of the fuel under off-normal and accident conditions, a necessary part of the safety analysis of the various reactors. In addition, TREAT was used to test light-water reactor (LWR) elements in a steam environment to obtain fission-product release data under meltdown conditions. Studies are now under way on applications of TREAT …

An investigation of the rapid rise time of x-ray emission from targets heated by an ultrashort-pulse high-intensity optical laser was conducted for use as a pump for inner-shell photo-ionized x-ray lasing. Results of x-ray rise times from instantaneously heated Au rod targets show little benefit for using optical pulse widths less than 30 fs. Gain calculations for inner-shell photo-ionized lasing show that large gains can be obtained for pulse widths between 30 and 100 fs. Calculated spectra, using the hydrodynamic/atomic kinetics code LASNEX, from a 1 J, 65 fs FWHM pulse optical laser incident on a structured Au target gave a gain of 1 1.5 cm{sup {minus}1} in C at 45 {angstrom}.

The seismic structure of North Africa is poorly understood due to the relative paucity of stations and seismicity when compared to other continental regions of the world. A better understanding of the velocity structure in this area will allow improved models of travel times and regional phase amplitudes. Such models will improve location and identification capability in this region leading to more effective monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Using regional-to-teleseismic Rayleigh and Love waves that traverse the area we can obtain information about the region's seismic structure by examining phase velocity as a function of period. We utilize earthquakes from the tectonically active regions bounding North Africa (Mediterranean, Red Sea, East African Rift, and Mid-Atlantic Ridge) recorded at broadband seismic stations distributed throughout the region. A two-station method is utilized to determine phase velocity information along the interstation segment of the ray path. The two-station method provides particular advantage in this region as it dramatically increases the number of events available to provide pure North African sampling. Bandpass filters are applied to the seismograms so that peaks and troughs may be correlated. The phase is unwrapped and a difference curve computed. The difference curve is then converted to a …

The TREAT facility was designed and built in the 1950s to provide a transient reactor for conducting safety experiments on reactor fuels. Throughout its almost 40-year history, it has proven to be a safe, reliable, and versatile facility, compiling a distinguished record of successful experiments. Several major improvements to the facility have been made, including an expansion of the building and of equipment handling capability, and enlargement of the access hole above the core, rearrangement of the reactor's control rods to provide more-uniform flux profiles, installation of improved reactor computer-control systems, a feedback system that safely allows real-time changes in power transients depending upon events occurring in the experiment, and several upgrades in the fast neutron hodoscope for improved experiment-fuel-motion diagnostics. The original TREAT fuel is still in use, however, since it appears to have no degradation from its many years of service.

The effect of shrapnel on target chamber components and experiments at large lasers such as the National Ignition Facility at LLNL and the Megajoule Laser at CESTA in France is an important issue in fielding targets and exposure samples. Modeling calculations are likely to be an important component of this effort. Some work in this area has been performed by French workers, who are collaborating with the LLNL on many issues relating to target chamber, experiment-component, and diagnostics survival. Experiments have been performed at the PhCbus laser in France to measure shrapnel produced by laser-driven targets; among these shots were experiments that accelerated spheres of a size characteristic of some of the more damaging shrapnel. These spheres were stopped in polyethylene witness plates. The penetration depth is characteristic of the velocity of the shrapnel. Experimental calibration of steel sphere penetration into polyethylene was performed at the CESTA facility. The penetration depth has been reported (ref. 1) and comparisons with modeling calculations have been made (ref. 2). There was interest in a comparison study of the modeling of these experiments to provide independent checks of the calculations. This work has been approved both by DOE headquarters and by the French Atomic …

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), now under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will be the largest laser fusion facility ever built. The NIF laser architecture is based on a multi-pass power amplifier to reduce cost and maximize performance. A key component in this laser design is an optical switch that closes to trap the optical pulse in the cavity for four gain passes and then opens to divert the optical pulse out of the amplifier cavity. The switch is comprised of a Pockels cell and a polarizer and is unique because it handles a beam that is 40 cm x 40 cm square and allows close horizontal and vertical beam spacing. Conventional Pockels cells do not scale to such large apertures or the square shape required for close packing. Our switch is based on a Plasma-Electrode Pockels Cell (PEPC). In a PEPC, low-pressure helium discharges (1-2 kA) are formed on both sides of a thin slab of electro-optic material. Typically, we use KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4 } crystals (KDP). The discharges form highly conductive, transparent sheets that allow uniform application of a high-voltage pulse (17 kV) across the crystal. A 37 cm x 37 cm PEPC has been in routine …

Fused silica windows were artificially contaminated to estimate the resistance of target chamber debris shields against laser damage during NIF operation. Uniform contamination thin films (1 to 5 nm thick) were prepared by sputtering various materials (Au, Al, Cu, and B₄C). The loss of transmission of the samples was first measured. They were then tested at 355 nm in air with an 8-ns Nd:YAG laser. The damage morphologies were characterized by Nomarski optical microscopy and SEM. Both theory and experiments showed that metal contamination for films as thin as 1 nm leads to a substantial loss of transmission. The laser damage resistance dropped very uniformly across the entire surface (e.g. 6 J/cm² for 5 nm of Cu). The damage morphology characterization showed that contrary to clean silica, metal coated samples did not produce pits on the surface. B₄C coated silica, on the other hand, led to a higher density of such damage pits. A model for light absorption in the thin film was coupled with a simple heat deposition and diffusion model to perform preliminary theoretical estimates of damage thresholds. The estimates of the loss due to light absorption and reflection pointed out significant .differences between metals (e.g. Al and …

Cleanliness measurements made on AMPLAB prototype National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser amplifiers during assembly, cassette transfer, and amplifier operation are summarized. These measurements include particle counts from surface cleanliness assessments using filter swipe techniques and from airborne particle monitoring. Results are compared with similar measurements made on the Beamlet and Nova lasers and in flashlamp test fixtures. Observations of Class 100,000 aerosols after flashlamp firings are discussed. Comparisons are made between typical damage densities on laser amplifier optics from Novette, NOVA, Beamlet, and AMPLAB.

We examined the ability of a halophilic bacterium (WFP 1A) isolated from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site to accumulate uranium in order to determine the potential for biocolloid facilitated actinide transport. The bacterial cell Surface functional groups involved in the complexation of the actinide were determined by titration. Uranium, added as uranyl nitrate, was removed from solution at pH 5 by cells but at pH 7 and 9 very little uranium was removed due to its limited volubility. Although present as soluble species, uranyl citrate at pH 5, 7, and 9, and uranyl carbonate at pH 9 were not removed by the bacterium because they were not bioavailable due to their neutral or negative charge. Addition of uranyl EDTA to brine at pH 5, 7, and 9 resulted in the immediate precipitation of U. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis revealed that uranium was not only associated with the cell surface but also accumulated intracellulary as uranium-enriched granules. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis, of the bacterial cells indicated the bulk sample contained more than one uranium phase. Nevertheless these results show the potential for the formation of actinide bearing bacterial biocolloids …

The joint USNRC/CEC consequence uncertainty study was chartered after the development of two new probabilistic accident consequence codes, MACCS in the U.S. and COSYMA in Europe. Both the USNRC and CEC had a vested interest in expanding the knowledge base of the uncertainty associated with consequence modeling, and teamed up to co-sponsor a consequence uncertainty study. The information acquired from the study was expected to provide understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of current models as well as a basis for direction of future research. This paper looks at the elicitation process implemented in the joint study and discusses some of the uncertainty distributions provided by eight panels of experts from the U.S. and Europe that were convened to provide responses to the elicitation. The phenomenological areas addressed by the expert panels include atmospheric dispersion and deposition, deposited material and external doses, food chain, early health effects, late health effects and internal dosimetry.

Both the increased complexity of integrated circuits, resulting in six or more levels of integration, and the increasing use of flip-chip packaging have driven the development of integrated circuit (IC) failure analysis tools that can be applied to the backside of the chip. Among these new approaches are focused ion beam (FIB) tools and processes for performing chip edits/repairs from the die backside. This paper describes the use of backside FIB for a failure analysis application rather than for chip repair. Specifically, they used FIB technology to prepare an IC for inspection of voided metal interconnects (lines) and vias. Conventional FIB milling was combined with a super-enhanced gas assisted milling process that uses XeF{sub 2} for rapid removal of large volumes of bulk silicon. This combined approach allowed removal of the TiW underlayer from a large number of Ml lines simultaneously, enabling rapid localization and plan view imaging of voids in lines and vias with backscattered electron (BSE) imaging in a scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Sequential cross sections of individual voided vias enabled them to develop a 3-d reconstruction of these voids. This information clarified how the voids were formed, helping to identify the IC process steps that needed to …

Both the increased complexity of integrated circuits, resulting in six or more levels of integration, and the increasing use of flip-chip packaging have driven the development of integrated circuit (IC) failure analysis tools that can be applied to the backside of the chip. Among these new approaches are focused ion beam (FIB) tools and processes for performing chip edits/repairs from the die backside. This paper describes the use of backside FIB for a failure analysis application rather than for chip repair. Specifically, we used FIB technology to prepare an IC for inspection of voided metal interconnects (''lines'') and vias. Conventional FIB milling was combined with a super-enhanced gas assisted milling process that uses XeF{sub 2} for rapid removal of large volumes of bulk silicon. This combined approach allowed removal of the TiW underlayer from a large number of Ml lines simultaneously, enabling rapid localization and plan view imaging of voids in lines and vias with backscattered electron (BSE) imaging in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Sequential cross sections of individual voided vias enabled us to develop a 3-d reconstruction of these voids. This information clarified how the voids were formed, helping us identify the IC process steps that needed to …

The understanding and manipulation of the point defect structure in oxide glasses have been critical to the enhanced performance and reliability of optical-fiber-based, photosensitive photonic devices that currently found widespread application in telecommunications and remote sensing technologies. We provide a brief review of past research investigating photosensitive mechanisms in germanosilicate glasses, the primary material system used in telecommunications fibers. This discussion motivates an overview of ongoing work within our laboratories to migrate photosensitive glass technologies to a planar format for integrated photonic applications. Using reactive-atmosphere, RF-magnetron sputtering, we have demonstrated control of glass defect structure during synthesis, thereby controlling both the material photosensitivity (i. e. dispersion and magnitude of the refractive index change) and its environmental stability.

As part of a collaborative effort between Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Kentucky to develop a deployable mirror for remote sensing applications, research in shape sensing and control algorithms that leverage the distributed nature of electron gun excitation for piezoelectric bimorph mirrors is summarized. A coarse shape sensing technique is developed that uses reflected light rays from the sample surface to provide discrete slope measurements. Estimates of surface profiles are obtained with a cubic spline curve fitting algorithm. Experiments on a PZT bimorph illustrate appropriate deformation trends as a function of excitation voltage. A parallel effort to effect desired shape changes through electron gun excitation is also summarized. A one dimensional model-based algorithm is developed to correct profile errors in bimorph beams. A more useful two dimensional algorithm is also developed that relies on measured voltage-curvature sensitivities to provide corrective excitation profiles for the top and bottom surfaces of bimorph plates. The two algorithms are illustrated using finite element models of PZT bimorph structures subjected to arbitrary disturbances. Corrective excitation profiles that yield desired parabolic forms are computed, and are shown to provide the necessary corrective action.

Consider the 2-matching problem defined on the complete graph, with edge costs which satisfy the triangle inequality. We prove that the value of a minimum cost 2-matching is bounded above by 4/3 times the value of its linear programming relaxation, the fractional 2-matching problem. This lends credibility to a long-standing conjecture that the optimal value for the traveling salesman problem is bounded above by 4/3 times the value of its linear programming relaxation, the subtour elimination problem.

Electret ion chambers are inexpensive, light-weight, robust, commercially available, passive charge-integrating devices for accurate measurement of different radiations.

A capacitated covering IP is an integer program of the form min{l_brace}ex{vert_bar}Ux {ge} d, 0 {le} x {le} b, x {element_of} Z{sup +}{r_brace}, where all entries of c, U, and d are nonnegative. Given such a formulation, the ratio between the optimal integer solution and the optimal solution to the linear program relaxation can be as bad as {parallel}d{parallel}{sub {proportional_to}}, even when U consists of a single row. They show that by adding additional inequalities, this ratio can be improved significantly. In the general case, they show that the improved ratio is bounded by the maximum number of non-zero coefficients in a row of U, and provide a polynomial-time approximation algorithm to achieve this bound. This improves upon the results of Bertsimas and Vohra, strengthening their extension of Hall and Hochbaum.

We report on recent studies of the effects of 50 keV focused ion beam (FIB) exposure on MOS transistors. We demonstrate that the changes in value of transistor parameters (such as threshold voltage, V{sub t}) are essentially the same for exposure to a Ga+ ion beam at 30 and 50 keV under the same exposure conditions. We characterize the effects of FIB exposure on test transistors fabricated in both 0.5 {micro}m and 0.225 {micro}m technologies from two different vendors. We report on the effectiveness of overlying metal layers in screening MOS transistors from FIB-induced damage and examine the importance of ion dose rate and the physical dimensions of the exposed area.

There has been considerable interest in developing dry processes which can effectively replace wet processing in the manufacture of large area photovoltaic devices. Environmental and health issues are a driver for this activity because wet processes generally increase worker exposure to toxic and hazardous chemicals and generate large volumes of liquid hazardous waste. Our work has been directed toward improving the performance of screen-printed solar cells while using plasma processing to reduce hazardous chemical usage.

Testing of an automated, remote system to analyze tritium in aqueous solutions at environmental levels has been accomplished.

Crystalline silicon continues to be the dominant semiconductor material used for terrestrial photovoltaics. This paper discusses the scientific issues associated with silicon photovoltaics processing, and cell design that may yield cell and module performance improvements that are both evolutionary and revolutionary in nature. We first survey critical issues in ''thick'' crystalline silicon photovoltaics, including novel separations processes for impurity removal, impurity and defect fundamentals, interface passivation, the role of hydrogen. Second, we outline emerging opportunities for creation of a very different ''thin-layer'' silicon cell structure, including the scientific issues and engineering challenges associated with thin-layer silicon processing and cell design.

The GRABGAM code has been developed for analysis of ultra-low-level HPGe gamma spectra. The code employs three different size filters for the peak search, where the largest filter provides best sensitivity for identifying low-level peaks and the smallest filter has the best resolution for distinguishing peaks within a multiplet. GRABGAM basically generates an integral probability F-function for each singlet or multiplet peak analysis, bypassing the usual peak fitting analysis for a differential f-function probability model. Because F is defined by the peak data, statistical limitations for peak fitting are avoided; however, the F-function does provide generic values for peak centroid, full width at half maximum, and tail that are consistent with a Gaussian formalism. GRABGAM has successfully analyzed over 10,000 customer samples, and it interfaces with a variety of supplementary codes for deriving detector efficiencies, backgrounds, and quality checks.