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HCSSL

The Lawrence Livermore “Heat Capacity Solid State Laser” program

The Strategic Missile Defense (SMD) program that Lawrence Livermore Laboratories was tasked to build a ¼ scale 4 slab GGG HEL laser.  Decade Optical Systems was contracted to design, development, test and deliver 16ea 720 50W bar laser pump diode arrays that would be used to pump the slabs.   As the electrical team lead Mr. Allison was responsible for the test electronics design and test fixtures needed for testing each of the 80 bar sub-arrays.  He successfully designed and developed the sub-array diode driver that provided the 60amp 160volt CW power for acceptance testing.  Mr. Allison also designed and we developed the optical power sensors used in conjunction with a 24” integrating sphere to do the power measurements.  The team successfully completed all 16 of the 720 bar pump arrays which were delivered and the HCSSL laser was demonstrated by Lawrence Livermore Laboratories.