Diode-seeded fiber-based sodium laser guide stars ready for deployment

The quest of the astronomical instrumentation community for high-power, narrow-band CW laser guide stars (LGS) has been a challenge to the laser community for more than two decades now. Only recently, a new generation of rugged laser system developments has started to provide the laser infrastructure for the next generation earth-bound telescopes. We report on the system design of four 20W CW diode-seeded fiber-amplified laser guide star for deployment at the VLT in 2013.