The direct-drive, laser-based approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is reviewed from
its inception following the demonstration of the first laser to its implementation on the present …

Ion acceleration driven by superintense laser pulses is attracting an impressive and steadily
increasing effort. Motivations can be found in the applicative potential and in the perspective …

For many years, laser-driven ion acceleration, mainly proton acceleration, has been
proposed and a number of proof-of-principle experiments have been carried out with lasers …

The advent of ultraintense laser pulses generated by the technique of chirped pulse
amplification (CPA) along with the development of high-fluence laser materials has opened …

The feasibility of using laser plasma as a source of high-energy ions for the purposes of
proton therapy is discussed. The proposal is based on the efficient ion acceleration …

As tabletop lasers continue to reach record levels of peak power, the interaction of light with
matter has crossed a new threshold, in which plasma electrons at the laser focus oscillate at …

In order to achieve a high-quality, ie, monoenergetic, intense ion beam, we propose the use
of a double-layer target. The first layer, at the target front, consists of high-Z atoms, while the …

Fusion fast ignition (FI) initiated by a laser-driven particle beam promises a path to high-yield
and high-gain for inertial fusion energy. FI can readily leverage the proven capability of …

The ion acceleration driven by a laser pulse at intensity I= 10 20–10 22 W/cm 2×(μ m/λ) 2
from a double layer target is investigated with multiparametric particle-in-cell simulations …

The ways toward modeling of astrophysical processes and extreme field regimes with super-
power lasers are discussed. The main attention is paid to the problem of limited similarity in …