LMI Seminar: What happens when light meets matter in a powerful football field size laser?

Abstract:

In this presentation, I will briefly introduce the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the light-matter interaction research effort advancing the energetics of such systems. I will go in more depth into few examples of experiments and modeling studies designed to better understand the underlying mechanisms of defects created when the energetic laser meets the optics: surface particulates leading to damage formation and the resulting light scattering, and bulk filaments resulting from self-focusing.