SG-II laser elementary research and precision SG-II program

Shen Guang-II laser facility, which will be put into formal operation in a few months, is now the largest laser driver in China. During the constructi on phase several new techniques have been developed. Some of those were ado pted and well performed. We present in this paper several elementary resear ch results. The operating stable longitudinal mode oscillator is controlled by the mode loss modulation. The pulse amplitude controller has been demon strated properly. Laser pulse shaping systems were developed. The time-spac e-time converter system was well investigated and chosen at the first phase as the facility temporal tailor, whose on-line performance was good. Two s ets of 2 x 2 segment array amplifiers with co-axis double pass structure we re operated for the first time. Several features will be briefly introduced . We will also present the features of the novel high quality Nd:glass with non-platinum inclusions, the big KDP crystal growth and the sol-gel coatin g technology. The precision SC-II project was initiated late in 1996. The e nergy balance and power balance were normally considered. The environment i mprovement process has started. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights r eserved.