Design and construction of the 100 kilojoule capacitor bank for the Australian National University high power laser system

Abstract

The Department of Engineering Physics' high power laser system consists essentially of three stages - a mode locked oscillator or a Q- switched oscillator, a series of rod amplifiers and a series of eliptical disc amplifiers. The latter are excited by linear flash lamps and powered via an inductive energy store, from the Department's Homopolar Generator, while the first two stages are excited by helical flash lamps powered from a 100 kJ, 8 kV capacitor bank (figures 1 and 2). It is the capacitor bank, together with its associated power supply, controls, interlocks and flash lamp triggering system (figure 3) which is the subject of this report. Show more