Editing Laboratory for Laser Energetics (section)

==OMEGA laser==
[[File:U.S. Department of Energy - Science - 282 022 002 (16502292185).jpg|left|thumb|View inside the Omega target chamber at the moment of system operation.]]
The OMEGA laser is a laser device at the LLE built to perform direct-drive [[inertial confinement fusion]] experiments. It is a 60-beam ultraviolet [[nonlinear optics|frequency-tripled]] [[list of laser types|neodymium glass]] laser, which is capable of delivering 40 [[kilojoule]]s at up to 60 [[orders of magnitude (power)#1 terawatt|terawatts]], making it one of the most powerful and highest energy lasers in the world. The laser light can be focused onto a spherical target less than 1 millimeter in diameter<ref name="OMEGA LLE">{{Cite web |title=Omega Laser Facility |url=https://www.lle.rochester.edu/omega-laser-facility-2/ |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=Laboratory for Laser Energetics |language=en-US}}</ref> suspended in a spherical vacuum chamber 3.3 meters in diameter.<ref name="OMEGAuserguide">{{Cite report |publisher=Laboratory for Laser Energetics |title=Omega Facility Users' Guide |date=2014 |chapter=2. OMEGA Laser System |url=https://www.lle.rochester.edu/about-the-laboratory-for-laser-energetics/nluf/ |chapter-url=https://www.lle.rochester.edu/media/about/documents/UsersGuide/02_UsersGuide.pdf |access-date=2024-04-04 }}</ref>

Initial construction and commissioning of the laser were completed in 1980 under a 21 million USD contract between the University of Rochester and the US Department of Energy. At the time, it was a 24-beam 15 terawatt system.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=June 24, 1980 |title=New laser unit called answer to power crunch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8NBKAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1 |access-date=April 4, 2024 |work=Schenectady Gazette |location=Rochester, NY |page=3 }}</ref> It was upgraded between 1990 and 1995  for 61 million USD into the 60-beam system that exists today.<ref name="OMEGAuserguide" /> OMEGA held the record for highest energy laser (per pulse) from 1999 (after the [[Nova laser]]'s dismantling) to 2005, when the first 8 beams of the [[National Ignition Facility]] exceeded OMEGA's output by about 30 kJ in the ultraviolet.

OMEGA is used for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments, in which the lasers compress a target filled with fusion fuel, forming a dense hot region at the center in which [[nuclear fusion]] reactions occur. OMEGA once held the record for highest neutron yield of any inertial confinement fusion device.{{cn|date=April 2024}} It has demonstrated yields of over 5×10<sup>13</sup> reactions per implosion, with internal pressures of over 50 gigabars.<ref>{{cite journal |author=S. P Regan |display-authors=et al. | title=Demonstration of Fuel Hot-Spot Pressure in Excess of 50 Gbar for Direct-Drive, Layered Deuterium-Tritium Implosions on OMEGA |journal=Physical Review Letters | volume=117 | page=025001 | publisher=American Physical Society | date=6 July 2016 |issue=2 | doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.025001 |pmid=27447511 |bibcode=2016PhRvL.117b5001R | issn=0031-9007 | url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/110482|hdl=1721.1/110482 | access-date=29 June 2023| hdl-access=free }}</ref>