High energy lasers

These laser facilities are delivering short flash of coherent light with high energy per pulse (kJ up to MJ). They are mostly dedicated to inertial confinement studies (indirect/direct drive, fast ignition, choc ignition…). They are also pertinent for laser-plasma interaction experiments, laboratory astrophysics (choc compression of sample to pressure equivalent to planetary core conditions, magnetized plasma jets formation…). Some part of the laser energy can also be converted into secondary sources of X-rays or particules and be used as a radiographic backlighter of the sample undergoing extreme conditions.

In France

• Laboratoire pour l’utilisation des lasers intenses, LULI (Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau)
• Laser MégaJoule (LMJ) – Pétal (CEA Cesta, near Bordeaux)

In europe

• VULCAN (CLF, Didcot, UK)
• PHELIX (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany)
• PALS (Pragues, Czeck Republic)

In the world

• National Ignition Facility (California, USA)
• LLE (Rochester, USA)
• FIREX (Osaka, Japan)