The Jupiter Laser Facility: a kilojoule-class laser for producing and exploring extreme states of matter

This talk will present opportunities for high energy density science and laser-driven shock-compression experiments at LLNL’s Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF). The facility has just completed a 4-year long refurbishment and is welcoming users back through the LaserNetUS network. In addition to scientific discovery, JLF has historically served as a steppingstone to larger experiments at the NIF and OMEGA lasers. JLF supports multiple laser platforms: Titan, Janus TA1, and COMET. Titan’s two-beam system is composed of a nanosecond, kilojoule long-pulse beam and a short- pulse beam with 1 to 10 ps pulses and energies up to 300 J, depending on pulse duration, and these beams can be used together or independently. JLF’s Janus system has two independent beams, each of which can produce 1 kJ at 1.053 μm with pulse lengths from 1 to 20 ns. The system fires approximately every 30 minutes and offers frequency doubling, as well as a variety of pulse shapes. COMET’s flexible configuration, which was designed primarily to generate laboratory x-rays, offers uncompressed pulse lengths from 500 ps to 6 ns, compressed pulses down to 0.5 ps, and beam energies up to 10 J.