Radiation Physics and Chemistry 70 (2004) 535–552 Overview of future directions in high energy-density and high-field science using ultra-intense lasers T. Ditmire a, *, S. Bless a , G. Dyer a , A. Edens a , W. Grigsby a , G. Hays a , K. Madison a , A. Maltsev a , J. Colvin b , M.J. Edwards b , R.W. Lee b , P. Patel b , D. Price b , B.A. Remington b , R. Sheppherd b , A. Wootton b , J. Zweiback c , E. Liang d , K.A. Kielty d a Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Austin, TX 78712, USA b Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA c General Atomics, San Diego, CA 92121, USA d Rice University, Houston, TX, USA Abstract The increasing proliferation of 100 TW class ultrashort pulse lasers and the near completion of a number of petawatt class lasers world wide is opening many frontiers in laser science. Some of the most exciting frontiers rest in high energy- density science and high field physics. A multi-TW laser can create heated matter with pressure in excess of a Gbar and can create electric fields of ten to one hundred atomic units. In this paper some of the recent advances in high energy density science and high field physics made using high intensity short pulse lasers will be reviewed with illustrative examples from work performed at the University of Texas and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The increase in light intensity available in the laboratory over the previous 20 years has been astounding. Laser peak power has climbed from giga- watts to petawatts in this time span, and accessible focused intensity has increased by at least seven orders of magnitude. Such a dramatic increase in light bright- ness has accessed an entirely new set of phenomena. High repetition rate table top lasers can routinely produce intensity in excess of 10 19 W/cm 2 , and inten- sities of up to 10 20 W/cm 2 are possible with the latest petawatt class systems (Mourou et al., 1998; Mourou and Umstadter, 2002; Perry and Mourou, 1994). Light- matter interactions with single atoms are strongly non- perturbative and electron energies are relativistic. The intrinsic energy density of these focused pulses is very high, exceeding a gigajoule per cm 3 . The interactions of such intense light with matter lead to dramatic effects, such as high temperature plasma creation, bright X-ray pulse generation, fusion plasma production, relativistic particle acceleration, and highly charged ion production (Mourou and Umstadter, 2002). Such exotic laser–matter interactions have led to an interesting set of applications in high field science, and high energy density physics (HED physics). These applications span basic science and extend into un- expected new areas such as fusion energy development and astrophysics. In this paper some of these new applications will be reviewed. The topics covered here do not represent a comprehensive list of applications made possible with high intensity short pulse lasers, but they do give a flavor of the diverse areas affected by the latest laser technology. Most of the applications discussed here are based on recent experiments using lasers with peak power of 5–100 TW. How these experiments could be extended with a petawatt class laser will also be discussed. ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-512-471-3296; fax: +1- 512-471-8865. E-mail address: tditmire@physics.utexas.edu (T. Ditmire). 0969-806X/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.radphyschem.2003.12.042