欧州における超高出力レーザーを使った物質?プラズマ?真空の研究と新展開

摘要

Since T. Maiman invented laser a half century ago, the technology has been made rapid progress. Today extremely intense laser with > 10~(24) W/cm~2 is expected to open new paradigm of such high field science as ion acceleration in ultrarelativistic regime, attosecond physics, and nonlinear QED with high potential for broad applications. A tight race is now running all over the world to develop large research infrastructures of Exawatt-class laser. Such European high power laser projects as ELI, IZEST, and XCELS, that are in progress, are overviewed.