Following months of cooperative research with Hoya Corp. of Fremont, Calif., Schott Glass Technologies Inc. of Duryea, Pa., has achieved continuous production of laser glass slabs for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif. The process should produce the slabs 20 times faster than by batch melting -- good news for the ignition project, which has been plagued by administrative, budgetary and technical problems.

The National Ignition Facility will require more than 3500 of the neodymium-doped phosphate glass slabs. The development costs of the production process have been shared with the Commissariat a L'Energie Atomique of France, which also will use the glass in its Laser Megajoule project.