• G. Andonian, A.Y. Murokh, C. Pellegrini, S. Reiche, J.B. Rosenzweig, G. Travish
  UCLA, Los Angeles, California
• M. Babzien, I. Ben-Zvi, V. Litvinenko, V. Yakimenko
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
• I. Boscolo, S. Cialdi, A.F. Flacco
  INFN-Milano, Milano
• M. Ferrario, L. Palumbo, C. Vicario
  INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma)
• J.Y. Huang
  POSTECH, Pohang, Kyungbuk

The VISA II experiment entails use of a chirped beam to drive a high gain SASE FEL. The output radiation is diagnosed with a modified frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) technique. Sextupoles are implemented to correct the lonigtudinal aberrations affecting the high energy spread chirped beam during transport to the undulator. The double differential energy spectrum is measured with a pair of slits and a set of gratings. In this paper, we report on start-to-end simulations, radiation diagnostics, as well as intial experimental results; experimental methods are described.