A high stability Nd:YAG photocathode drive laser

A versatile, highly stable, reliable Nd:YAG laser is in operation at Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) for illuminating a metal photocathode RF electron gun. This system addresses stringent requirements on pulse duration, pulse timing jitter, pulse energy, spatial profile, and pointing imposed by electron accelerator experiments. This paper describes the oscillator operation, (which also includes control of a semicconductor switch for ATF`s high power CO{sub 2} laser), beam transport to the cathode, etc.