  The Any Light Particle Search II (ALPS II) is an experiment currently being
built at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, that will use a light-shining-through-a-wall
(LSW) approach to search for axion-like particles. ALPS II represents a
significant step forward for these types of experiments as it will use 24
superconducting dipole magnets, along with dual, high-finesse, 122 m long
optical cavities. This paper gives the first comprehensive recipe for the
realization of the idea, proposed over 30 years ago, to use optical cavities
before and after the wall to increase the power of the regenerated photon
signal. The experiment is designed to achieve a sensitivity to the coupling
between axion-like particles and photons down to g=2e-11 1/GeV for masses below
0.1 meV, more than three orders of magnitude beyond the sensitivity of previous
laboratory experiments. The layout and main components that define ALPS II are
discussed along with plans for reaching design sensitivity. An accompanying
paper (Hallal, et al [1]) offers a more in-depth description of the heterodyne
detection scheme, the first of two independent detection systems that will be
implemented in ALPS II.
