Crystal development Water jet cutting Glass glue bonding Diffusion bonding Large diameter boule growth Thermal stress analysis Reproducible growth of high optical quality crystals achieved. Stress fracture during fabrication arose as a new issue cm  Laser polish surfaces are activated with a basic solution such as KOH  Bonds are permanent, optically transparent, and can withstand temperatures up to 1000 °C  “Super” polished surfaces are optically contacted and heated to allow thermal diffusion  Phase errors occur in bond region – thought to be thermally stress induced.  Water based non-thermal erosion using high pressure water in a thin stream ~ 1 mm thick.  Stresses frozen into crystals during growth  Analysis of the stress gives optimal cutting geometry for boules Current Slabs  6.5 cm Czochralski crystals grown  No bonding required for full size Mercury slabs (Central Coast Gem Lab, Inc., Santa Maria, CA) (Onyx Optics, Inc., Dublin, CA) (Material Science Dept., UC Davis) (Schott Glass Technologies, Durea, PA) (Northrup Grumman / LLNL collaboration) This work was performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48.

Technological advancements on the Mercury laser Phase correction Capabilities:  Maximum P-V modulation 7 microns  Minimum feature size ~ 1 mm  Plate size  30 x 30 cm 2  Plate thickness > 300  m Compensates for static phase distortions in S-FAP slabs, system optics, front end, as well as point operation thermal correction With phase corrector Without phase corrector Front end Far fields from amplifier alone: Full system far fields: With phase corrector Without phase corrector 49% Energy in 5 TDL 7% Energy in 1 TDL 83% Energy in 5 TDL 15% Energy in 1 TDL 98% Energy in 5 TDL 15% Energy in 1 TDL 92% Energy in 5 TDL 39% Energy in 1 TDL 90% Energy in 5 TDL 12% Energy in 1 TDL

Real time damage diagnostic (a-f) Evolution of damage at 10 Hz and (g) the static near field (V-shaped cutouts are due to a fracture in phase plate.) Background image Binary image with thresholding Damage image Damage - Background A damage diagnostic algorithm allows automatic damage detection without user intervention. Dark field Bright field Dark field analysis (detects high spatial frequency damage) Bright field analysis (detects low spatial frequency damage) Analysis routine