There are currently over 50 petawatt class lasers worldwide. These laser systems are used for a number of research projects ranging from inertial confinement fusion, radiography, particle acceleration, studying materials at high temperatures and pressures, radiation therapy, secondary source generation, and medical isotope creation to name a few. There is a huge growth in this field considering that in 1998 the only petawatt class laser in the world was on the NOVA laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Pulse compression gratings and short pulse transport mirrors remain one of the fluence limiting components on these laser systems.
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