High-repetition-rate Technology Development at GALADRIEL Relevant to IFE and HED Science

The high-energy-density (HED) physics community is at the precipice of a major paradigm shift, moving from single-shot to high-repetition-rate (HRR) operation at the ~0.01-10 Hz level. Many future applications of high-power laser systems, including secondary radiation sources (SRSs) and inertial fusion energy (IFE), will require long time-scale, pulsed operation at HRR. However, many diagnostics and target-fielding strategies implemented at present high-power-laser facilities require breaking vacuum between shots to exchange film-media, replace a stalked target, etc. This experimental paradigm must change as our community seeks to leverage HED science for applications that will greatly benefit society at large. The GALADRIEL facility [1] 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 SRSs and IFE. The ~1TW system (~25fs, ~25mJ) runs automated experiments and data is stored using MORIA [2], a custom-developed database framework designed for high-rep-rate laser experiments. A review of capabilities will be given, including experiments in the areas of advanced pulse-shaping techniques at the femtosecond-scale [3], ML-based pulse-shaping control algorithms [4], Bayesian optimization of MeV-electron production from a laser-driven gasjet, and automated delivery of complex targets using a tape-drive system [5].