30, 20 and 10 Years Ago in OPN

“On October 21, 1994, the [Department of Energy]’s Secretary Hazel O’Leary announced the approval to proceed with the NIF [National Ignition Facility], which will deliver 1.8 MJ of 0.35 μm light. ... The NIF will use the output from an array of 192 individual beamlets, each configured in a multipass architecture, to compress and ignite a small cryogenic capsule filled with D-T. In preparation for the NIF, LLNL has built and tested the prototype Beamlet. ... The Beamlet has met most of its performance specifications and has recently produced 6.4 kJ in 3 nsec at 0.35 μm with an 80% frequency conversion efficiency.”