Laser and optical system for laser assisted hydrogen ion beam stripping at SNS

Recently, a high-efficiency laser assisted hydrogen ion (H-) beam stripping was successfully carried out in the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator. The experiment was not only an important step toward foil-less H- stripping for charge exchange injection, it also set up a first example of using megawatt ultraviolet (UV) laser source in an operational high power proton accelerator facility. This paper reports in detail the design, installation, and commissioning result of a macro-pulsed multi-megawatt UV laser system and laser beam transport line for the laser stripping experiment.