Commissioning of the Del'fin 1 laser fusion facility

The optical system of the Del'fin 1 facility is described and results are presented of preliminary experiments on the laser heating of spherical targets of ~ 300 μ diameter. The laser radiation energy was ~ 700 J (at the target), the divergence was ~ 3.5×10^–4 rad, the contrast ratio was better than 10⁶, and the duration was ~ 2 nsec. It was found that plasma temperatures of 800–1000 eV were achieved experimentally.