"Fail-safe" system for suppressing stimulated Brillouin scattering in large optics on the Nova laser

We have designed and are testing a `fail safe' system on Nova to suppress stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in large optics at the output of the laser. The system increases the laser bandwidth to prevent SBS and prevents pulses with insufficient bandwidth from being injected into the amplifier chain. It is thus fail safe. The system design and experimental measurements are presented.