As reported in previous work (Neil, Proceedings of the 1998 European Partic
le Accelerator Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 1998, p. 88; Shinn, in: Free-
Electron Laser Challenges, Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 2988, 1997, p. 170), J
efferson Lab is building a free-electron laser capable of generating a cont
inuous wave kilowatt laser beam. The driver-accelerator consists of a super
conducting, energy-recovery accelerator. The initial stage of the program w
as to produce over 100 W of average power with no recirculation. In order t
o provide maximum gain the initial wavelength was chosen to be 5 mu m and t
he initial beam energy was chosen to be 38.5 MeV. On June 17. 1998, the las
er produced 155 W cw power at the laser output with a 98% reflective output
coupler. On July 28th, 311 W cw power was obtained using a 90% reflective
output coupler. A summary of the commissioning activities to date as well a
s some novel lasing results will be summarized in this paper. Present work
is concentrated on optimizing lasing at 5 mu m, obtaining lasing at 3 mu m,
and commissioning the recirculation transport in preparation for kilowatt
lasing this fall. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.