High power Yb:YAG diode pumped LUCIA front-end oscillator (250 mJ, 50 ns, 2 Hz).

The LULI laboratory is building a new intense laser chain with an energy goal of 100 J and at high repetition rate (10 Hz). This chain, called LUCIA, is composed of an oscillator and two diode pumped Yb:YAG amplifiers. We will show the progress of our work on the oscillator. In terms of performance in free running regime, we reach energies of about 4 J at 2 Hz with diode pumping energies of 11 J. In Q-switch regime 49ns long pulses at a repetition rate of 2 Hz were observed.