Board of trustees of the leland stanford junior university new award control number: 3387-2184 vision open 2024 (DE-FOA-0003387) project title: "gaseous optics for next generation fusion energy…

The Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University a cooperative agreement worth $1.205 million on September 18, 2025, under the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy program (CFDA 81.135) to develop gaseous optics for next-generation fusion energy lasers.

The recipient will develop a toolkit of gaseous optical components—mirrors, lenses, and beam shapers—suitable for use as final optics in inertial fusion energy (IFE) laser drivers. Gaseous optics operate by creating strong density modulations in gas to redirect and focus high-energy laser beams. Unlike solid-state optical materials, gas-based optics are constantly renewed and can tolerate laser fluences more than one hundred times higher than solid-state alternatives, enabling more compact laser drivers and more efficient reactor designs while withstanding the extreme X-ray, neutron, and debris fluxes present in fusion target chambers. The project will also explore potential applications in manufacturing and high-power laser development.

Performance occurs at 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, California, with a period of performance through September 17, 2028. The University of California, Berkeley, participates as a sub-recipient under a federal grant sub-award issued March 30, 2026, contributing to the gaseous optics development effort.

Board of trustees of the leland stanford junior university new award control number: 3387-2184 vision open 2024 (DE-FOA-0003387) project title: "gaseous optics for next generation fusion energy lasers" description: "nuclear fusion offers a potential long-term solution for primary energy generation without greenhouse gas emissions. The recent demonstration of fusion ignition on the national ignition facility at the lawrence livermore national laboratory has validated the physics required for fusion power and prompted interest and investment in laser fusion as an energy source. All concepts for laser-driven inertial fusion energy (IFE) rely on high-energy laser pulses delivered to a target chamber to compress a fusion fuel capsule. A key obstacle is that the final optics that direct the laser beams to the fusion target are necessarily in the target's line-of-sight, and thus will experience extreme x-RAY, neutron, and debris fluxes as well as high laser light intensity. No existing optical material can withstand fusion reactor conditions, and, without suitable optics, laser energy cannot be delivered to the fusion fuel. Here, we propose developing gas-based optics into commercial-grade technology suitable to use as final optics for IFE lasers. Gas optics, based on creating strong density modulations in gas to redirect and focus high-energy laser beams, are constantly renewed and are thus not susceptible to x-rays, neutrons, or debris. They can tolerate laser fluences more than a hundred times higher than solid state optics, allowing more compact laser drivers and more efficient reactor designs. This project would develop the initial demonstration of a toolkit of gaseous optical components-mirrors, lenses, and beam shapers-that can be used to build IFE drivers and would also have potential applications in manufacturing and high-power laser development."