JACoW is a publisher in Geneva, Switzerland that publishes the proceedings of accelerator conferences held around the world by an international collaboration of editors.
@inproceedings{patel:icalepcs2023-mo3ao05,
author = {B.P. Patel and A.A.S. Awwal and M. Fedorov and R.R. Leach Jr. and R.R. Lowe-Webb and V.J. Miller Kamm and P.K. Singh},
% author = {B.P. Patel and A.A.S. Awwal and M. Fedorov and R.R. Leach Jr. and R.R. Lowe-Webb and V.J. Miller Kamm and others},
% author = {B.P. Patel and others},
title = {{Path to Ignition at National Ignition Facility (NIF): The Role of the Automated Alignment System}},
% booktitle = {Proc. ICALEPCS'23},
booktitle = {Proc. 19th Int. Conf. Accel. Large Exp. Phys. Control Syst. (ICALEPCS'23)},
eventdate = {2023-10-09/2023-10-13},
pages = {138--144},
paper = {MO3AO05},
language = {english},
keywords = {alignment, laser, target, controls, operation},
venue = {Cape Town, South Africa},
series = {International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems},
number = {19},
publisher = {JACoW Publishing, Geneva, Switzerland},
month = {02},
year = {2024},
issn = {2226-0358},
isbn = {978-3-95450-238-7},
doi = {10.18429/JACoW-ICALEPCS2023-MO3AO05},
url = {https://jacow.org/icalepcs2023/papers/mo3ao05.pdf},
abstract = {{The historical breakthrough experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) produced fusion ignition in a laboratory for the first time and made headlines around the world. This achievement was the result of decades of research, thousands of people, and hardware and software systems that rivaled the complexity of anything built before. The NIF laser Automatic Alignment (AA) system has played a major role in this accomplishment. Each high yield shot in the NIF laser system requires all 192 laser beams to arrive at the target within 30 picoseconds and be aligned within 50 microns-half the diameter of human hair-all with the correct wavelength and energy. AA makes it possible to align and fire the 192 NIF laser beams efficiently and reliably several times a day. AA is built on multiple layers of complex calculations and algorithms that implement data and image analysis to position optical devices in the beam path in a highly accurate and repeatable manner through the controlled movement of about 66,000 control points. The system was designed to have minimum or no human intervention. This paper will describe AA’s evolution, its role in ignition, and future modernization. }},
}