Terawatt to Petawatt Subpicosecond Lasers
Michael D. Perry 1 and
Gerard Mourou 2
1 Laser Program, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-493, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
2 Center for Ultrafast Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
The application of the chirped-pulse amplification technique to solid-state lasers combined with the availability of broad-bandwidth materials has made possible the development of small-scale terawatt and now even petawatt (1000-terawatt) laser systems. The laser technology used to produce these intense pulses and examples of new phenomena resulting from the application of these systems to atomic and plasma physics are described.