Capabilities of the GALADRIEL Facility for Addressing Questions in Engineering Science

Present and future lasers used for studying high-energy-density (HED) physics and inertial fusion energy (IFE) will operate at rates of ~0.1-10 Hz, yet most diagnostics and target-fielding strategies presently implemented require breaking vacuum between shots to exchange film-media, replace a stalked target, etc. This experimental paradigm must change as the community moves to rep-rated operation, and the General Atomics (GA) LAboratory for Developing Rep-rated Instrumentation and Experiments with Lasers (GALADRIEL) facility will serve as a platform for this change, providing a test bed to enable rapid development and testing of rep-rated technologies required to address questions in Engineering Science relevant to commercial applications of rep-rated, high-power lasers. The ~1 TW system has been commissioned in single-shot, high-power mode (~25 fs, ~25 mJ, 800 nm) by generating electrons up to >1MeV in a laser-wakefield accelerator experiment using a nitrogen gas jet. The modest size of this facility allows users to focus on outstanding questions in Engineering Science; including targetry, diagnostics, environmental and materials studies, analysis and machine learning algorithm development, as well as feedback control systems. GALADRIEL fills a niche presently missing in the US-based user-facility community by providing a flexible experimental platform to address engineering problems relevant to HED and IFE experiments. Current capabilities and recent progress towards automated operation and data acquisition at ~0.1 Hz will be discussed.