Nuclear physics with ultra-intense lasers : Present status and future prospects

Over the past twenty years, on-target deliverable laser intensity has seen greater than a million fold increase with intensities in excess of 10 20 Wcm -2 readily available. The interaction of such intense lasers with solid targets produces relativistic plasmas. and multi-MeV electron and photon beams are generated. Protons beams of greater than 50 MeV, heavy ions of several hundred MeV energies and copious quantities of neutrons have also been observed. These energetic particles have been used to induce a range of nuclear phenomena. In this review, the development of this new and exciting field of research will be traced and the potential of laser-produced particle beams will be discussed. Production of useful quantities of isotopes for nuclear medicine and acceleration of electrons to several hundred MeV in a few millimetres will be described. Future developments in laser technology are expected to open up vast possibilities in terms of compact particle accelerators, nuclear waste transmutation studies, fast ignition research, subpicosecond radiography, etc. Recently, nearly monoenergetic electrons of up to 170 MeV have been measured representing the natural evolution of the laser wakefield technology for producing energetic particle beams. Additionally, controlled generation of gigabar pressures and gigaGauss magnetic fields in relativistic plasmas promises to spawn new physical effects with applications in astrophysics.