Fast focal zooming scheme for direct drive fusion implemented by inserting KD2PO4 crystal

•The fast focal zooming scheme based on electrooptic effect was proposed. The redesign of KD2PO4 crystal and continuous phase plate for efficient focal zooming was proposed.•Based on the overall analysis of laser beam and target interaction, the focusing characteristics of laser beam during the entire laser pulse duration have been analyzed.•Analyzing results indicate that the focal spot size decreases as expected, while the illumination uniformity maintaining high during the entire focal zooming process.

The highly required uniformity of target in direct-drive fusion is difficult to achieve and maintain during the entire laser fusion implosion. To mitigate the increasing nonuniformity, the fast focal zooming scheme implemented by inserting an electro-optic (EO) crystal in the front end of beamline has been proposed. Functioning as a phase plate, the specifically designed EO crystal may add the induced spherical wavefront to the laser beam and alter its focusing characteristics. However, in order to zoom out the focal spot by half, the required voltage for KD2PO4 (DKDP) with single pair of electrodes is relatively high. In order to decrease the voltage while maintaining the zooming performance, the DKDP cylinder with multi pairs of electrodes has been presented. The continuous phase plate (CPP) is designed according to both the injected beam and the output field. However, the conventional CPP is designed based on the assumption of an injected beam without wavefront distortion, which would zoom in the focal spot variation in the focal zooming scheme. In order to zoom out the focal spot, a redesigned CPP has been proposed by adding a spherical wavefront to the phase variation of the conventional CPP and further optimizing. On the basis, the focusing characteristics of laser beam during the fast focal zooming process have been analyzed. Results indicate that the focal spot size decreases with the increasing voltage on DKDP crystal, meanwhile the uniformity maintains high during the focal zooming process.