The National Ignition Facility (NIF), now under construction at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will be the largest laser fusion facility ever built. The NIF laser architecture is based on a multi-pass power amplifier to reduce cost and maximize performance. A key component in this laser design is an optical switch that closes to trap the optical pulse in the cavity for four gain passes and then opens to divert the optical pulse out of the amplifier cavity. The switch is comprised of a Pockels cell and a polarizer and is unique because it handles a beam that is 40 cm x 40 cm square and allows close beam packing in four 4x12 clusters for a total of 192 beams. Conventional Pockels cells do not scale to such large apertures or the square shape required for close packing. Our switch is based on a Plasma-Electrode Pockels Cell (PEPC).

In a PEPC, low-pressure helium discharges (1-2 kA) are formed on both sides of a thin slab of electro-optic material (typically KDP). These discharges form highly conductive, transparent sheets which allow uniform application of a high-voltage pulse (17 kV) across the crystal. A 37 cm x 37 cm PEPC has been in routine operation for two years on the 6 kJ Beamlet laser at LLNL. For the NIF, a module four apertures high by one wide (4x1) is required. However, this 4´1 mechanical module will be comprised electrically of a pair of 2x1 sub-modules

Recently, we demonstrated full operation of a prototype 2x1 PEPC. In this PEPC, the plasma spans two KDP crystals. A major advance in the 2x1 PEPC over the Beamlet PEPC is the use of anodized aluminum construction which provides sufficient insulation to allow formation of the planar plasmas.

In this paper, we will present an overview of PEPC technology and focus on the engineering design of the PEPC for NIF.