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Optical properties of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) are in stark contrast to properties of ordinary media that fuels interest to various applications of HMMs in photonics. Special attention is attributed to the epsilon-near zero regime (ENZ) of HMMs that is the spectral point in which real part of the permittivity of the HMM becomes zero. This is accompanied by the effects of field enhancement having far-reaching applications. Here we focus on the experimental and theoretical investigation of the propagation of an ultrashort laser pulse through the silver nanorod-based HMM slab in the spectral range over the ENZ. We revealed pronounced resonant change of the pulse delay in HMMs and the transition between the superluminal and slow pulse propagation at the ENZ spectral point. Observed dynamical phenomena are confirmed theoretically and attributed to unusual case when the spectral half of an ultrashort pulse has elliptical dispersion and another has the hyperbolic one. Special attention is payed to the propagation of chirped laser pulses in the HMMs.

Magnetically driven plasma implosion is studied numerically with the use of a 3D radiative MHD model. We consider a Z-pinch formed by an array of thin tungsten wires. In our calculations we take into account a time-extended plasma production due to a material evaporation by an individual wire caused by the heating electric current. Using a detailed model of the pinch kernel, a soft x-ray radiation intensity is analyzed numerically with resolution of temporal, spatial, angular and spectral radiation characteristics. The results are represented for the conditions pertinent to experiments with cylindrical tungsten wire arrays at Angara-5-1 facility (TRINITI, RF).

Different experimental schemes for investigation of warm dense matter produced with intense energetic ion beams are presented. The described target configurations allow direct measurements of thermophysical and transport properties of warm dense matter without hydrodynamic recalculations. The presented experiments will be realized at the current GSI synchrotron SIS-18 and the future FAIR facility in the framework of the WDM-collaboration.