Abstract: A high energy, high beam quality short-pulse diode-pumped Nd: YAG master oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser with two amplifier stages is demonstrated. The two-rod birefringence compensation is used as beam quality control measure, which presents a short-pulse energy of 40 mJ with a beam quality value of M²=1.2 at a repetition rate of 400 Hz. The MOPA system delivers a short-pulse energy of 712.5 mJ with a pulse width of 12.4 ns.The method of spherical aberration compensation has improved the beam quality, a M² factor of 2.3 and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 27.7% are obtained at the maximum laser out power. The laser has obtained 1.4 J output energy with polarization integration.