Progress in the LUCIA project

We present in this paper the actual status of the LUCIA project, a high average power diode-pumped solid-state laser chain capable to deliver 100 J in nanosecond regime at 10 Hz. In a first step, we deal with the choice of the amplifier medium and the pump and extraction architecture. We present after the thermal management and the cooling architecture. Then, we investigate the damage threshold required. We present last the performances already obtained and the improvements we are working out.