Electrooptic prepulse suppression for fusion laser systems

We report on an effective electrooptic prepulse suppression technique with particular applicability to fusion laser systems. Three optically timed Pockels cells in series have a contrast of 10⁹. They are driven by a laser activated Si high voltage switch of 5 ps jitter and < 100 ps rise time. The resulting overall rise time of the three Pockels cells is 600 ps over the first 6 decades and 1.5 to 2 ns over 9 decades.