Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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The History of the X-ray Laser
The long and curious history of the X-ray laser began in an effort to expand the frontier of knowledge and culminated in one of the wildest schemes ever pursued by the United States government—the “Star Wars” missile defense initiative in the 1980s.
May 2008
https://www.osa-opn.org/home/articles/volume_19/issue_5/features/the_history_of_the_x-ray_laser/
The bomb-driven X-ray laser
The initial inspiration for Chapline’s design for a nuclear-driven X-ray laser was from a talk he had heard Soviet physicist I.I. Sobelman give at a conference in Novosibirsk. But the idea didn’t come together until Chapline heard about a nuclear test that the United States had conducted in Nevada. “I instantly put together the ideas I had gotten from Sobelman’s talk with the results of the experiment, and in five minutes came up with the general idea of something that would most likely work to make an X-ray laser with a nuclear device,” he recalled. Within a couple weeks, he had sketched out a detailed plan. His experiment was added to a nuclear test planned for other purposes on September 13, 1978, but an equipment failure prevented Chapline from taking the measurements he needed.
After a review of Chapline’s idea, Hagelstein came up with an alternative approach. Although initially skeptical, Wood became an advocate and persuaded Teller, giving them the backing they needed for a dedicated nuclear test of both approaches. Both succeeded in the November 14, 1980, experiment called Dauphin. Livermore decided to pursue Hagelstein’s idea because it offered a more intense beam.
Teller was excited by the prospects for what he called “third-generation nuclear weapons,” which could direct their energy toward particular targets rather than spreading energy in all directions. Teller wanted a way to defend the United States against Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Pentagon had long studied missile-defense schemes, and Congress was pushing to develop orbiting chemical-laser battle stations. But Teller and Wood believed that nuclear-powered X-ray lasers would be much smaller, lighter and more deadly, making them far more effective in a space-based defense system. Soon after the Dauphin test, they started pushing the idea to the new Reagan Administration.
The most visible result was a leak of the test results and missile defense plan in the February 23, 1981, issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology. The article claimed that the X-ray laser emitted peak power of several hundred terawatts at 1.4nm. Those figures have never been officially confirmed, but Livermore said in 1990 that the wavelength was the shortest ever emitted by a laser. The article did not identify the laser transition or test material, but Chapline told me the sample was “an organic pith material” from a weed growing on a vacant lot in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Project Excalibur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur
Dauphin success
Peter Hagelstein was in an undergraduate physics program at MIT in 1974 when he applied for a Hertz Foundation scholarship. Teller was on the Hertz board, and Hagelstein soon had an interview with Lowell Wood. Hagelstein won the scholarship, and Wood then went on to offer him a summer position at LLNL. He had never heard of the lab, and Wood explained they were working on lasers, fusion, and similar concepts. Hagelstein arrived in May 1975, but nearly left when he found the area to be "disgusting" and immediately surmised they were working on weapons research when he saw the barbed wire and armed guards. He stayed on only because he met interesting people.[13]
Hagelstein was given the task of simulating the X-ray laser process on LLNL's supercomputers. His program, known as XRASER for "X-Ray laser", eventually grew to about 40,000 lines of code.[14] He received his master's degree in 1976 and took a full-time job at the lab, intending to lead the development of a working laser. The idea was to use the lab's powerful fusion lasers as an energy source, as Hagelstein and Wood had suggested in their review paper. Hagelstein used XRASER to simulate about 45 such concepts before he found one that appeared to work.[10] These used the lasers to heat metal foils and give off X-rays, but by the late 1970s, none of these experiments had been successful.[14]
After the Diablo Hawk failure, Hagelstein reviewed Chapline's idea and came up with a new concept that should be much more efficient. Chapline had used a lightweight material, a fiber taken from a local weed, but Hagelstein suggested using a metal rod instead. Although initially skeptical, Wood came to support the idea and successfully argued that both concepts be tested in Chapline's shot.[10] The critical test was carried out on 14 November 1980 as Dauphin, part of Operation Guardian. Both lasers worked, but Hagelstein's design was much more powerful.[10] The lab soon decided to move forward with Hagelstein's version, forming the "R Program", led by another O-Group member, Tom Weaver.[15]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Gfc-xrl.jpg
The long and curious history of the X-ray laser began in an effort to expand the frontier of knowledge and culminated in one of the wildest schemes ever pursued by the United States government—the “Star Wars” missile defense initiative in the 1980s.
May 2008
https://www.osa-opn.org/home/articles/volume_19/issue_5/features/the_history_of_the_x-ray_laser/
The bomb-driven X-ray laser
The initial inspiration for Chapline’s design for a nuclear-driven X-ray laser was from a talk he had heard Soviet physicist I.I. Sobelman give at a conference in Novosibirsk. But the idea didn’t come together until Chapline heard about a nuclear test that the United States had conducted in Nevada. “I instantly put together the ideas I had gotten from Sobelman’s talk with the results of the experiment, and in five minutes came up with the general idea of something that would most likely work to make an X-ray laser with a nuclear device,” he recalled. Within a couple weeks, he had sketched out a detailed plan. His experiment was added to a nuclear test planned for other purposes on September 13, 1978, but an equipment failure prevented Chapline from taking the measurements he needed.
After a review of Chapline’s idea, Hagelstein came up with an alternative approach. Although initially skeptical, Wood became an advocate and persuaded Teller, giving them the backing they needed for a dedicated nuclear test of both approaches. Both succeeded in the November 14, 1980, experiment called Dauphin. Livermore decided to pursue Hagelstein’s idea because it offered a more intense beam.
Teller was excited by the prospects for what he called “third-generation nuclear weapons,” which could direct their energy toward particular targets rather than spreading energy in all directions. Teller wanted a way to defend the United States against Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Pentagon had long studied missile-defense schemes, and Congress was pushing to develop orbiting chemical-laser battle stations. But Teller and Wood believed that nuclear-powered X-ray lasers would be much smaller, lighter and more deadly, making them far more effective in a space-based defense system. Soon after the Dauphin test, they started pushing the idea to the new Reagan Administration.
The most visible result was a leak of the test results and missile defense plan in the February 23, 1981, issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology. The article claimed that the X-ray laser emitted peak power of several hundred terawatts at 1.4nm. Those figures have never been officially confirmed, but Livermore said in 1990 that the wavelength was the shortest ever emitted by a laser. The article did not identify the laser transition or test material, but Chapline told me the sample was “an organic pith material” from a weed growing on a vacant lot in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Project Excalibur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excalibur
Dauphin success
Peter Hagelstein was in an undergraduate physics program at MIT in 1974 when he applied for a Hertz Foundation scholarship. Teller was on the Hertz board, and Hagelstein soon had an interview with Lowell Wood. Hagelstein won the scholarship, and Wood then went on to offer him a summer position at LLNL. He had never heard of the lab, and Wood explained they were working on lasers, fusion, and similar concepts. Hagelstein arrived in May 1975, but nearly left when he found the area to be "disgusting" and immediately surmised they were working on weapons research when he saw the barbed wire and armed guards. He stayed on only because he met interesting people.[13]
Hagelstein was given the task of simulating the X-ray laser process on LLNL's supercomputers. His program, known as XRASER for "X-Ray laser", eventually grew to about 40,000 lines of code.[14] He received his master's degree in 1976 and took a full-time job at the lab, intending to lead the development of a working laser. The idea was to use the lab's powerful fusion lasers as an energy source, as Hagelstein and Wood had suggested in their review paper. Hagelstein used XRASER to simulate about 45 such concepts before he found one that appeared to work.[10] These used the lasers to heat metal foils and give off X-rays, but by the late 1970s, none of these experiments had been successful.[14]
After the Diablo Hawk failure, Hagelstein reviewed Chapline's idea and came up with a new concept that should be much more efficient. Chapline had used a lightweight material, a fiber taken from a local weed, but Hagelstein suggested using a metal rod instead. Although initially skeptical, Wood came to support the idea and successfully argued that both concepts be tested in Chapline's shot.[10] The critical test was carried out on 14 November 1980 as Dauphin, part of Operation Guardian. Both lasers worked, but Hagelstein's design was much more powerful.[10] The lab soon decided to move forward with Hagelstein's version, forming the "R Program", led by another O-Group member, Tom Weaver.[15]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Gfc-xrl.jpg
