This paper provides an overview of the current status of ultrafast and ultra-intense lasers with peak powers exceeding 100 TW and examines the research activities in high-energy-density physics within China. Currently, 10 high-int

The use of ultra-high intensity laser beams to achieve extreme material states in the laboratory has become almost routine with the development of the petawatt laser. Petawatt class lasers have been constructed for specific resear

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) is tasked with supporting Continuous At Sea Deterrence (CASD) by certifying the performance and safety of the national deterrent in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) era. This means th

This paper reviews the different challenges that are encountered in the delivery of high power lasers as drivers for fusion energy. We will focus on diode-pumped solid-state lasers and we will highlight some of the main recent ach

The properties of a series of phase measurement techniques, including interferometry, the Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor, the knife-edge technique, and coherent diffraction imaging, are summarized and their performance in high po

The development, the underlying technology and the current status of the fully diode-pumped solid-state laser system POLARIS is reviewed. Currently, the POLARIS system delivers 4 J energy, 144 fs long laser pulses with an ultra-hi

Laser resistance and stress-free mirrors, windows, polarizers, and beam splitters up to 400 mm×400 mm are required for the construction of the series SG facilities. In order to improve the coating quality, a program has been in pl

Beam positioning stability in a laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facility is a vital problem that needs to be fixed. Each laser beam in the facility is transmitted in lots of optics for hundreds of meters, and then t

We review the use of hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF) for high power laser beam delivery. A comparison of bandgap HC-PCF with Kagome-lattice HC-PCF on the geometry, guidance mechanism, and optical properties shows that

The driving mechanism of solar flares and coronal mass ejections is a topic of ongoing debate, apart from the consensus that magnetic reconnection plays a key role during the impulsive process. While present solar research mostly

We will review some of the requirements for a laser that would be used with a laser fusion energy power plant, including frequency, spatial beam smoothing, bandwidth, temporal pulse shaping, efficiency, repetition rate, and reliab