Jul 19 2007
QED Technologies, in conjunction with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Zygo Corporation, recently won a prestigious R&D 100 Award for 2007, granted by R&D Magazine for the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace in the past year. The winning project, “Large Aperture Continuous Phase Plate Optics Manufactured Using Magnetorheological Finishing”, cites QED Technologies’ Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF®) technology as enabling the manufacture, precision and world-class performance of continuous phase plates.
Continuous phase plates are a vital part of the optics chain for kilojoule- and megajoule-class laser systems such as the National Ignition Facility at LLNL, Laser Megajoule near Bordeaux, France, and OMEGA at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. These high energy lasers are invaluable tools at the forefront of high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research, areas of physics seen as one of the most promising by the National Academy of Sciences. Continuous phase plates make it possible to precisely manipulate and control laser beam shapes, energy distributions, and wavefront profiles. Their manufacture involves imprinting the surface of a large-aperture optic with a topographical structure that is polished into the surface using QED Technologies’ MRF technology. After polishing, these optics measure to within 30 nanometers—or about one-millionth of an inch—of topographical design specifications. Continuous phase plates represent the first and only of their kind in the large-aperture beam-conditioning optic category that can be manufactured to the extreme tolerances required for use on systems like the National Ignition Facility, the world’s largest laser system and targeting facility.
“The development of advanced Magnetorheological Finishing and topographical imprinting resulted in truly enabling the capability for manufacturing ultra-precision optics. This represents a milestone to LLNL’s National Ignition Facility in pursuit of its efforts for nuclear fusion”, said Joe Menapace of LLNL.
“Innovation and creating enabling technologies is at the heart of everything that we do at QED Technologies”, said Marc Tricard, Director of Business Development. “I’d like to acknowledge the years of research, design and testing that our engineering teams dedicated to developing advanced MRF technology.”