Z Beamlet Motion
Z-Backlighter Laser Facility
Customer: Sandia National Laboratories
The Z-Backlighter (ZBL) facility is the world’s third largest pulsed laser system. It consists of the Z-Beamlet laser and the Z-Petawatt laser. The Z-Beamlet laser is a large aperture, high energy, solid state laser with a primary mission to provide 1.2kJ (1ns pulse) laser shots into the Z accelerator for use as a diagnostic imaging source. The Z-Petawatt laser is a short pulse laser system based on the Chirped Pulse Amplification principle. It allows new radiography options for the high energy density physics conditions generated with a Z-pinch. The main amplifiers of the laser can be fired once every three hours. In addition to firing into Z, shots are executed to develop diagnostic techniques, calibrate equipment required for the main mission and support collaborations with other national labs and universities using ZBL’s own experimental chamber located on the Target Bay mezzanine.
As the Z facility enters the 21st century, SNL has initiated a major upgrade of the complex. As part of the effort, Z-Beamlet and Z-Petawatt lasers are being upgraded. Ktech’s LabVIEW development team is involved in the design and development of the new control software system. At the core of the new system is a modern distributed software architecture built on an advanced object-oriented design and the latest software technologies. This new architecture is highly flexible and easily upgraded as the facility matures.
The ZBL control software provides system and facility control functions for more than 1,000 I/O points and more than 300 control loops. The software integrates and controls the activities of seven different control subsystems including Shot Control, Motion Control, Diagnostics Control, Vision Control, Handshaking and Triggering, Pulsed Power Control, Personnel Safety Control, and Vacuum Control.
New code modules have been developed to control the new Z-Petawatt laser hardware and to automate shot control tasks currently being performed manually by the laser science staff. The new software will control the laser stage optics and subsystems including the master oscillator, regenerative amplifier, the slicer beam-shaping section, four-pass rod amplifier, main cavity slab amplifier, transport spatial filter section, frequency doubling crystal, calibration chamber and the Z-Accelerator transport section/final optics assembly.
The new system will also incorporate enterprise-level capability for automatically capturing, archiving, and indexing data acquired during each shot, which will be a boon to researchers and maintenance personnel alike. These new features will increase the laser’s rate of fire, reduce the maintenance and operations burden on the staff, automatically generate reports containing laser configuration information, and greatly enhance the facility’s value as a scientific tool.
