Two breakthroughs in the development of high power solid-state laser technology in China

High power solid-state lasers are vital for laser fusion, high energy density physics and frontier basic science research. In the 1960s and 1970s, the older generation of scientists Wang Ganchang, Wang Daheng, Deng Ximing, Yu Min and others, with keen insight and strategic vision, conceived a grand program for China's laser fusion research, which gave a tremendous boost to the country's long-term development of high power solid-state laser technology. With strong national support, the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), as the flagship for laser fusion research, united with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other leading institutions to promote and organize several major high power laser facilities in China. The Laser Fusion Research Center (LFRC) of CAEP, through courage, innovation, cooperation, and more than 30 years of persistence, has achieved two breakthroughs in high power solid-state laser technology for China. The first concerns the new generation of high power Nd:glass lasers, implemented in the successful development of the SG-III prototype and host laser facility, which is the largest in Asia. The other breakthrough is the realization of ultra-short ultra-intense pulsed laser light in the SILEX-I laser facility, the first domestic system capable of producing powers up to 200 TW.These two breakthroughs have bolstered the further development of China's laser fusion research, as well as bringing China's high power solid-state technology from a state of“catching up”to “closing in”compared with developed countries such as the USA or France.