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This paper deals with the principal results of studies performed by scientists of academic institutes and nuclear industry enterprises in the field of laser physics and high energy density physics. Some projects of creating an advanced experimental laser base are presented, and the directions of works to be done are listed.

This work was supported by the STFC Central Laser Facility, the STFC Centre for Fundamental physics and by EPSRC through Grant EP/G04239X/1. We acknowledge PRACE for providing access to the resource SuperMUC based in Germany at the Leibniz Research Center. LOS acknowledges the support of the European Research Council (ERC-2015-AdG Grant No. 695088). Brillouin amplification of laser pulses in plasma has been shown to be a promising approach to produce picosecond pulses of petawatt power. A key challenge is preservation of the quality of the amplified pulse, which requires control of parasitic instabilities that accompany the amplification process. At high plasma densities ( >cr /4), ponderomotive filamentation has been identified as the biggest threat to the integrity of the amplifying pulse. It has therefore been proposed to perform Brillouin scattering at densities below ncr/4 to reduce the influence of filamentation. However, parasitic Raman scattering can become a problem at such densities, contrary to densities above ncr/4 where it is forbidden. In this paper, we investigate the influence of parasitic Raman scattering on Brillouin amplification at densities below ncr/4 . We expose the specific problems posed by both Raman backward and forward scattering, and how both types of scattering can be mitigated, leading to an increased performance of the Brillouin amplification process. Publisher PDF

As high-intensity short-pulse lasers that can operate at high-repetition-rate (HRR) (>10 Hz) come online around the world, the high-energy-density (HED) science they enable will experience a radical paradigm shift. The >10^3x increase in shot rate over today’s shot-per-hour drivers translates into dramatically faster data acquisition and more experiments, and thus the potential to significantly accelerate the advancement of HED science. We will present the vision and ongoing work to realize a HRR framework that allows for rapidly delivered optimal experiments by bringing together feedback laser control loops, high-throughput targetry and diagnostics, cognitive simulation, enhanced HED codes, and advanced data analytics.

We report the first (to the best of our knowledge) high-power, low-coherence Nd:glass laser delivering kilojoule pulses with a coherent time of 249 fs and a bandwidth of 13 nm, achieving the 63%-efficiency second-harmonic conversion of the large-aperture low-coherence pulse and good beam smoothing effect. It provides a new type of laser driver for laser plasma interaction and high energy density physics research.

Since the seminal paper of Nuckolls triggering the quest of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) with lasers, hydrodynamic instabilities have been recognized as one of the principal hurdles towards ignition. This remains true nowadays for both main approaches (indirect drive and direct drive), despite the advent of MJ scale lasers with tremendous technological capabilities. From a fundamental science perspective, these gigantic laser facilities enable also the possibility to create dense plasma flows evolving towards turbulence, being magnetized or not. We review the state of the art of nonlinear hydrodynamics and turbulent experiments, simulations and theory in ICF and high-energy-density plasmas and draw perspectives towards in-depth understanding and control of these fascinating phenomena. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

The paper describes the architecture of an LTD generator with a pulse rise time of ∼100 ns and initial energy of up 50 MJ for high energy density physics applications. From numerical computations, requirements are formulated on the electrical parameters of capacitor-switch assemblies as LTD drivers for this type of generators.

In this paper, we report on the development of a plasma betatron X-ray source for active diagnostics of various plasma physics and high energy density physics experiments in the Plasma Physics Platform (P3) at ELI Beamlines. This X-ray source will deliver ultrashort X-ray pulses with photon energies ranging from a few keV up to 100’s of keV with over 109 photons per pulse with a rep. rate up to 10 Hz. The driver laser for betatron source is a Ti:sapphire diode-pumped HAPLS laser system [1] that can deliver up to 30 J of energy in less than 30 femtosecond, at a maximum repetition rate of 10 Hz.

The High Energy Density Physics program at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has had a multiyear campaign to verify the predictive capability of the interface evolution of shock propagation through different profiles machined into the face of a plastic package with an iodine-doped plastic center region. These experiments varied the machined surface from a simple sine wave to a double sine wave and finally to a multitude of different profiles with power spectrum ranges and shapes to verify LANL’s simulation capability. The MultiMode-A profiles had a band-pass flat region of the power spectrum, while the MultiMode-B profile had two band-pass flat regions. Another profile of interest was the 1-Peak profile, a band-pass concept with a spike to one side of the power spectrum. All these profiles were machined in flat and tilted orientations of 30 and 60 deg. Tailor-made machining profiles, supplied by experimental physicists, were compared to actual machined surfaces, and Fourier power spectra were ...

This paper provides an overview of the frontier research fields and significant questions in nuclear physics regarding particle accelerators, and the status and future development trends for big-science facilities of particle accelerators are reviewed. Two Chinese government-approved “12th Five-Year” major science infrastructure facilities, the “High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF)” and “China Initiative Accelerator Driven System (CiADS)”, are being constructed in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. Based on these two big-science projects (HIAF and CiADS), we proposed to establish a large-scale charged particle accelerator complex facility named the “Bright Electron and Ion research Facility (BEIF).” This facility will be dedicated to the research and development of nuclear physics and its interdisciplinary frontier fields. The research frontier fields of nuclear physics at the BEIF will include nuclear structure and astrophysics, nucleon structure, quark matter phase structure, and interdisciplinary fields between several significant frontiers of fundamental and nuclear physics, such as highly charged atomic physics and heavy ion-driven high energy density physics. BEIF will be a large-scale scientific complex facility comprising several superconducting ion LINAC accelerators, synchrotrons, storage rings, reactors, and various large experimental detectors and setups. BEIF will be built in three construction phases and will become one of the premier global large-scale particle accelerator complex facilities dedicated to the research of nuclear physics and technology.

The rapid development of a heavy-ion accelerator technology avails a new approach of producing high-energy-density (HED) matter in the laboratory, and an beneficial experimental platform for the inertial-confinement-fusion (ICF) that is driven by ion beams. The Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is responsible for the construction of the recently developed heavy ion accelerator facility (HIAF) in the 12th five-year plan period. The layout and building plan of the accelerator comlex regardinging HED and ICF inclusds the shooting of single-ion beams in phase-1, the shooting of double-ion beams in the optimization of phase-1 and the shooting of multi-ion beams in the phase-upgrade. A brief introduction of the state of matter driven by different beams-shooting methods and the new diagnostic development by IMP are presented. This paper will provide essential references of the experimental route and technical support for the research on ICF in China.

Sandia National Laboratories' origin began during World War II. In July 1945 our forerunner, Sandia Base, was established to develop, test, and assemble non-nuclear parts of weapons. Shock wave research became essential in the 1950s with the advent of supersonic and exoatmospheric missiles. A major concern was effects of radiation-produced shocks on materials. As a result, we developed a wide range of experimental, diagnostic, modeling, and computational capabilities. These have addressed complex issues related to both weapons and basic science. Notable applications have included analysis of the cause of the turret explosion aboard the USS Iowa and predicting the response to the Shoemaker- Levy comet impact on Jupiter. Six decades later, our research encompasses all aspects of material science from high energy density physics to low density plasma surface interactions.

Particle accelerators play a key role in a broad set of defense and security applications, including war-fighter and asset protection, cargo inspection, nonproliferation, materials characterization, and stockpile stewardship. Accelerators can replace the high activity radioactive sources that pose a security threat to developing a radiological dispersal device, and, can be used to produce isotopes for medical, industrial, and research purposes. An overview of current and emerging accelerator technologies relevant to addressing the needs of defense and security is presented.

International audience; The creation of high energy density plasma states produced during laser-solid interaction on a sub-picosecond timescale opens a way to create astrophysical plasmas in the lab to investigate their properties, such as the frequency-dependent refractive index. Available probes to measure absorption and phase-changes given by the complex refractive index of the plasma state are extreme-UV (EUV) and soft X-ray (XUV) ultra-short pulses from high harmonic generation (HHG). For demanding imaging applications such as single-shot measurements of solid density plasmas, the HHG probe has to be optimized in photon number and characterized in intensity and wavefront stability from shot-to-shot. In an experiment, a coherent EUV source based on HHG driven by a compact diode-pumped laser is optimized in photons per pulse for argon and xenon, and the shot-to-shot intensity stability and wavefront changes are characterized. The experimental results are compared to an analytical model estimating the HHG yield, showing good agreement. The obtained values are compared to available data for solid density plasmas to confirm the feasibility of HHG as a probe.

High Energy Density (HED) physics spans over numerous areas of basic and applied physics, for example, astrophysics, planetary physics, geophysics, inertial fusion and many others. Due to this reason, it has been a subject of very active research over the past many decades. Static as well as dynamic methods have been applied to generate samples of HED matter in the laboratory. The most commonly used tool in the static techniques is the diamond anvil cell while the dynamic methods involve shock compression of matter. During the past fifteen years, great progress has been made on the development of bunched intense particle beams that have emerged as an additional new tool for studying HED physics. In this paper we present two experiment designs that have been worked out for HED physics studies at the Facility for Antiprotons and Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt. This facility has entered into construction phase and will provide one of the largest and most powerful particle accelerators in the world. (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The Z-Backlighter Laser Facility at Sandia National Laboratories was developed to enable high energy density physics experiments in conjunction with the Z Pulsed Power Facility at Sandia National Laboratories, with an emphasis on backlighting. Since the first laser system there became operational in 2001, the facility has continually evolved to add new capability and new missions. The facility currently has several high energy laser systems including the nanosecond/multi-kilojoule Z-Beamlet Laser (ZBL), the sub-picosecond/kilojoule- class Z-Petawatt (ZPW) Laser, and the smaller nanosecond/100 J-class Chaco laser. In addition to these, the backlighting mission requires a regular stream of coated consumable optics such as debris shields and vacuum windows, which led to the development of the Sandia Optics Support Facility to support the unique high damage threshold optical coating needs described.

The rapid progress of laser technology has opened up the possibility of generating ultrashort laser pulses of the nano–pico–femto1–atto–second range and of bringing (see Tables 3.2, 3.3; Fig. 3.2) the existing and projected laser complexes into the petawatt–zettawatt power range (Figs 4.1, 4.2), making it possible to span a wide range of power densities up to the highest values achievable today, q ≈ 1022– 1023 W/cm2 [70, 69, 6, 14], which will undoubtedly rise with time.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a high-energy laser facility comprised of 192 beamlines that house thousands of optics. These optics guide, amplify and tightly focus light onto a tiny target for fusion ignition research and high energy density physics experiments. The condition of these optics is key to the economic, efficient and maximally energetic performance of the laser. Our goal, and novel achievement, is to find on the optics any imperfections while they are tens of microns in size, track them through time to see if they grow and if so, remove the optic and repair the single site so the entire optic can then be re-installed for further use on the laser. This paper gives an overview of the image analysis used for detecting, measuring, and tracking sites of interest on an optic while it is installed on the beamline via in situ inspection and after it has been removed for maintenance. In this way, the condition of each optic is monitored throughout the optic's lifetime. This overview paper will summarize key algorithms and technical developments for custom image analysis and processing and highlight recent improvements. (Associated papers will include more details on these issues.) We will also discuss the use of OI Analysis for daily operation of the NIF laser and its extension to inspection of NIF targets.

The multi-Terawatt laser system, terawatt apparatus for relativistic and nonlinear interdisciplinary science, has been recently installed in the Centre for Plasma Physics at the Queen's University of Belfast. The system will support a wide ranging science program, which will include laser-driven particle acceleration, X-ray lasers, and high energy density physics experiments. Here we present an overview of the laser system as well as the results of preliminary investigations on ion acceleration and X-ray lasers, mainly carried out as performance tests for the new apparatus. We also discuss some possible experiments that exploit the flexibility of the system in delivering pump-probe capability.

Field of High Energy Density (HED) physics is very important from the scientific as well as technological point of view and due to these reasons, it has been an area of very active research over the past many decades. Static as well as dynamic experimental configurations have been used to study this subject. Recently, a new approach that involves isochoric and uniform heating of matter by intense ion beams, has been proposed to generate HED sates in the laboratory. Extensive theoretical work has been carried out to propose various experiment designs employing this technique. In this paper we describe one of these proposed experiments that can be used to study planetary interiors in the laboratory and is named LAPLAS (LAboratory PLAnetary Sciences). Detailed analysis of implosion and hydrodynamic stability of the target is presented.

With the upgrade program of SG-II laser facility, 1kJ PW laser system based on its Nd:glass ninth beam has been designed for the scientific research on high energy density physics, ICF, especially the fast ignition. In this paper the design overview is presented. According to the schedule, the installation of optics and mechanics will be finished by the middle of 2009, and the operation will start in half year later.

Pulse power has expanded its regime in technological and application fields. The state-of-art of switching technology shifts the trend of pulse power from huge and single shot systems to compact and highly repetitive generators. This extends the pulse power application into industrial, environmental, biological, medical, and also scientific fields. The progress has enabled us to have high energy density plasma and/or well-defined extreme conditions with low cost and good reproducibility. Plasmas produced by compact pulse power devices are proposed as a new tool in small laboratories for high energy density physics and its applications.

LFEX is the world’s largest high-energy petawatt laser. So far it delivers 3 kJ/1 ps and is planed to finally deliver 10 kJ/10-20 ps. It has been constructed and became partially operational since 2008, and with full beams since 2014. LFEX is synchronized to nsec Gekko-XII laser for variety of experiments with nsec and psec simultaneous laser beams irradiating the targets for fast ignition and other high-energy density physics.

The Laser MegaJoule (LMJ) under construction at CESTA, a CEA laboratory located near Bordeaux, is designed to produce 240 beams, 1.8 MJ, 500 TW of ultraviolet light for high energy density physics experiments and thermonuclear burn of DT targets. The first step of LMJ program consisted in the construction of a full scale prototype the "Ligne d'Integration Laser" (LIL) which was developed to demonstrate LMJ performances and qualify all its components and systems as well as maintenance procedures. Commissioned in 2002, LIL facility mainly includes a laser bay which houses a bundle of 8 beamlines similar to the LMJ ones and a target bay where are located the 1ω-3ω conversion system, the focusing gratings and the 4.4-meter diameter target chamber equipped with plasma diagnostics. This paper describes the LIL facility as a tool for laser-matter interaction pointing out the laser system.

The French Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (CEA) began the construction of the Laser Megajoule (LMJ), a 240 beams laser facility, at the CEA Laboratory CESTA near Bordeaux. The LMJ will be a cornerstone of the CEA “Programme Simulation”, similar to LLNL “NIF” facility. The LMJ is designed to deliver 2 MJ of 0.35 μm light to targets for high energy density physics experiments and to ultimately obtain ignition and propagating burn with DT targets in the laboratory. The scientific conception and system design was completed in 1999 and was followed by the Demonstration of an Engineering Prototype which was achieved in early 2003 with operation of one beam of the Ligne d’Integration Laser (LIL) at CESTA, with 9.5 kJ of UV light (0.35 μm) in less than 9 ns from a single laser beam. The construction phase of the LMJ facility was initiated in March 2003 with the start of work on the building and the target chamber. This paper will present a summary of 2004 LIL results and a description of LMJ, which is expected to demonstrate first light performance through 240 beams by 2009.

The Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory (HIF–VNL), a collaboration among LBNL, LLNL, and PPPL, is presently focused on separate smaller-scale scientific experiments addressing key issues of future Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) and High-Energy-Density-Physics (HEDP) drivers: the injection, transport, and focusing of intense heavy ion beams at currents from 25 to 600 mA. As a next major step in the HIF–VNL program, we aim for a fully integrated beam physics experiment, which allows integrated source-to-target physics research with a high-current heavy ion beam of IFE-relevant brightness with the goal of optimizing target focusing. This paper describes two rather different options for such an integrated experiment, the Integrated Beam Experiment (IBX) and the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX). Both proposals put emphasis on the unique capability for integrated injection, acceleration, compression, and focusing of a high-current, space-charge-dominated heavy ion beam.

The French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) began the construction of the Laser Megajoule (LMJ), a 240-beam laser facility, at the CEA Laboratory CESTA near Bordeaux. The LMJ will be a cornerstone of the CEA 'Programme Simulation', the French analog of the US Stockpile Stewardship Program.The LMJ is designed to deliver 2 MJ of 0.35 µm light to targets for high energy density physics experiments and to ultimately obtain ignition and propagating burn with DT targets in the laboratory.The Scientific conception and system design was completed in 1999 and was followed by the Demonstration of an Engineering Prototype which was achieved in early 2003 with the operation of one beam of the Ligne d'Integration Laser (LIL) at CESTA, with 9.5 kJ of UV light (0.35 µm) in less than 9 ns from a single laser beam.The realization phase of the LMJ facility was initiated in March of 2003 with the start of construction of the building and the target chamber.This paper will present results from the commissioning phase of the LIL program in 2003 and 2004. The activation and commissioning of all eight beamlines of LIL over the next 2 years will be part of determining the final specifications and integration and commissioning plans for the LMJ, which is expected to demonstrate first light performance through 240 beams by 2009.

Targets are used for a variety of purposes, but ultimately we use them to validate codes that help us predict and understand new phenomena or effects. The sophistication and complexity of High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) and Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) targets has increased in time to match the advances made in modeling complex phenomena. The targets have changed from simple hohlraums, spherical geometries, and planar foils, to 3-dimensional geometries that require precision in construction, alignment, and metrology. Furthermore, material properties, such as surface morphologies and volume texture, have significant impact on the behavior of the targets and must be measured and controlled. In the following we will discuss how experimental physicists view targets and the influence that target construction has on interpreting the experimental results. We review a representative sampling of targets fabricated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory that are used in different experiments in support of ICF and HEDP.

A multi-Petawatt high-energy laser PETAL coupled to the Ligne d’Int´ Laser (LIL) is under construction in the Aquitaine Region in France. This Petawatt laser will be dedicated to academic experiments in the fields of high energy density physics and ultra high intensity. Nd : glass laser chain coupled with the chirped pulse amplification (CPA technique allows delivery of high energy. Optical parametric CPA for pre-amplification and a new compression scheme will be implemented. PETAL is designed to deliver 3.6 kJ of energy in 500 fs on a target corresponding to 7.2 PW. The PETAL beam linked to the up to 60 kJ ns UV beams from the LIL will present new scientific research opportunities. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

High power excimer laser has essential applications in the fields of high energy density physics, inertial fusion energy and industry owing to its advantages such as short wavelength, high gain, wide bandwidth, energy scalable and repetition operating ability. This overview is aimed at an introduction and evaluation of enormous endeavor of the international high power excimer laser community in the last 30 years. The main technologies of high power excimer laser are reviewed, which include the pumping source technology, angular multiplexing and pulse compressing, beam-smoothing and homogenous irradiation, high efficiency and repetitive operation et al. A high power XeCl laser system developed in NINT of China is described in detail.

The Orion Laser Facility at AWE in the UK consists of ten nanosecond beamlines and two sub-picosecond beamlines. The nanosecond beamlines each nominally deliver 500 J at 351 nm in a 1 ns square temporal profile, but can also deliver a user-definable temporal profile with durations between 0.1 ns and 5 ns. The sub-picosecond beamlines each nominally deliver 500 J at 1053 nm in a 500 fs pulse, with a peak irradiance of greater than 10 21 W/cm 2 . One of the sub-picosecond beamlines can also be frequency-converted to deliver 100 J at 527 nm in a 500 fs pulse, although this is at half the aperture of the 1053 nm beam. Commissioning of all twelve beamlines has been completed, including the 527 nm sub-picosecond option. An overview of the design of the Orion beamlines will be presented, along with a summary of the commissioning and subsequent performance data. The design of Orion was underwritten by running various computer simulations of the beamlines. Work is now underway to validate these simulations against real system data, with the aim of creating predictive models of beamline performance. These predictive models will enable the user’s experimental requirements to be critically assessed ahead of time, and will ultimately be used to determine key system settings and parameters. The facility is now conducting high energy density physics experiments. A capability experiment has already been conducted that demonstrates that Orion can generate plasmas at several million Kelvin and several times solid density. From March 2013 15% of the facility operating time will be given over to external academic users in addition to collaborative experiments with AWE scientists.

The PETAL system (PETawatt Aquitaine Laser) is a high-energy short-pulse laser, currently in an advanced construction phase, to be combined with the French Mega-Joule Laser (LMJ). In a first operational phase (beginning in 2015 and 2016) PETAL will provide 1 kJ in 1 ps and will be coupled to the first four LMJ quads. The ultimate performance goal to reach 7PW (3.5 kJ with 0.5 ps pulses). Once in operation, LMJ and PETAL will form a unique facility in Europe for High Energy Density Physics (HEDP). PETAL is aiming at providing secondary sources of particles and radiation to diagnose the HED plasmas generated by the LMJ beams. It also will be used to create HED states by short-pulse heating of matter. Petal+ is an auxiliary project addressed to design and build diagnostics for experiments with PETAL. Within this project, three types of diagnostics are planned: a proton spectrometer, an electronspectrometer and a large-range X-ray spectrometer.

Laser-Plasma Interactions and Applications covers the fundamental and applied aspects of high power laser-plasma physics. With an internationally renowned team of authors, the book broadens the knowledge of young researchers working in high power laser-plasma science by providing them with a thorough pedagogical grounding in the interaction of laser radiation with matter, laser-plasma accelerators, and inertial confinement fusion. The text is organised such that the theoretical foundations of the subject are discussed first, in Part I. In Part II, topics in the area of high energy density physics are covered. Parts III and IV deal with the applications to inertial confinement fusion and as a driver of particle and radiation sources, respectively. Finally, Part V describes the principle diagnostic, targetry, and computational approaches used in the field. This book is designed to give students a thorough foundation in the fundamental physics of laser-plasma interactions. It will also provide readers with knowledge of the latest research trends and elucidate future exciting challenges in laser-plasma science.

This paper has an attitude - that the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is needed. The NIF will be unique in its ability to address high energy density physics and to test fusion ignition in the laboratory. This is a major scientific step and has high appeal to scientists and engineers. The reason for taking this step now is the importance of high energy density physics for US policy on nuclear weapons. The fact that the same capability and experiments give the most fundamental information on the potential of inertial fusion for commercial energy, and have value for applications in astrophysics, further supports the case for proceeding with this facility. 21 refs., 6 figs.

Knowledge of the density of aerogel foams used in high energy density physics experiments is crucial for simulating and understanding the results of experiments. An average density for the foams is gravimetrically determined, but provides no information on the uniformity of the density. X-ray radiography is used to determine the density uniformity of the foams and the average density of the foams. A comparison between a monochromatic and polychromatic method of determining the density from the x-ray radiography is performed and compared to the gravimetric results.

StarDriver was recently proposed as a highly flexible laser driver for inertial confinement fusion and high energy density physics. It envisions a laser drive consisting of very many beams at an aperture and energy where the optical technology is well-developed, used in concert to create a large scale laser driver system. In this paper we describe a StarDriver-class laser with 5120 physical beamlets disposed about the target chamber in 80 evenly spaced ports, each port containing 64 beamlets, each beamlet having about ~1.5THz of 2D SSD bandwidth and suitable phase plates, an aperture of ~65mm, an energy of 80J, and frequency-converted to ~351nm.many beamlets at an aperture where optical technology is well-developed, and each beamlet has energy ~100J in a several times diffraction limited beam. The ensemble of beamlets has frequency bandwidth 2%-10%, thereby providing significant control of both hydrodynamic and laser-plasma instabilities The drive at the target is ~400kJ, has a well-behaved low L-mode spectrum, and smooths very rapidly, reaching an asymptotic smoothness of

The laser Megajoule (LMJ) facility is designed to provide the experimental capabilities to study High Energy Density Physics (HEDP). The LMJ is part of the Simulation Program, which combines improvement of physics models, high performance numerical simulation, and experimental validation. Since the operational commissioning of the LMJ, in October 2014, several experimental campaigns have been achieved. They have demonstrated the good performances of LMJ and demonstrated its aptitudes to perform experiments for the Simulation Program. The PETAL project consists in the addition of one short-pulse (ps) ultra- high-power, high-energy beam (kJ) to the LMJ facility. The first high energy test shots in the compressor stage of PETAL, performed in May 2015, have reached a power of 1.2 PW. PETAL will offer a combination of a very high intensity multi-petawatt beam, synchronized with the nanosecond beams of the LMJ. This combination will expand the LMJ experimental field in HEDP. LMJ-PETAL is open to the academic communities; the first experiments are planned in 2017.

The implosions of initially solid beryllium liners (tubes) have been imaged with penetrating radiography through to stagnation. These novel radiographic data reveal a high degree of azimuthal correlation in the evolving magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor structure at times just prior to (and during) stagnation, providing stringent constraints on the simulation tools used by the broader high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion communities. To emphasize this point, comparisons to 2D and 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations are also presented. Both agreement and substantial disagreement have been found, depending on how the liner's initial outer surface finish was modeled. The various models tested, and the physical implications of these models are discussed. These comparisons exemplify the importance of the experimental data obtained.

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX-II) is an induction accelerator project currently in construction at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) experiments. This accelerator requires 30 pulsers to drive the high magnetic field transport solenoids. Each solenoid requires 7 kA to provide a maximum of 2.5 T peak magnetic field on axis. A 2 mF capacitor at 4 kV is discharged through an SCR into the solenoid inductance to produce a half-sine current pulse width of 2.8 ms. The details of the pulser design and fabrication are described as well as prototype test measurements.

Nevada Terawatt Facility (NTF) currently operates a high-intensity laser system—Leopard. NTF already operates a powerful z-pinch device, called Zebra, for plasma and High Energy Density physics research. The unique research opportunities arise from the combination of NTF’s terawatt Zebra z-pinch with 50-terawatt-class Leopard laser. This combination also provides opportunities to address fundamental physics of inertial fusion and high energy density physics with intense laser beam. We report on the status, design and architecture of the Leopard laser project. A first experiments carried out with Leopard will be also briefly mentioned.

Only a handful of universities in the US offer any formal training in accelerator science. The United States Particle Accelerator School (USPAS) is National Graduate Educational Program that has developed a highly successful educational paradigm that, over the past twenty‐years, has granted more university credit in accelerator/beam science and technology than any university in the world. Sessions are held twice annually, hosted by major US research universities that approve course credit, certify the USPAS faculty, and grant course credit. The USPAS paradigm is readily extensible to other rapidly developing, cross‐disciplinary research areas such as high energy density physics.

A combination of theory, simulation, and high-quality experiments has enabled significant progress in many high energy density science applications. While the recent science and engineering of pulsed power has been focused on the refurbishment of Z and developing advanced radiographic capabilities, discovery and innovation in the fundamental architecture of pulsed power systems have also made significant advances. This progress started in 1996 when the Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator (PBFA II), which began operation in 1985, was converted to the Z facility. The Z Refurbishment (ZR) project began six years later, driven by the need for more capacity (the ability to perform more experiments), improved precision (more precise pulse shaping, longer pulses, and reduced jitter), and more capability (higher energy delivered to the load and better diagnostic access). Over the past year, the Z facility was completely dismantled and rebuilt with newly designed components within the same basic 36-module architecture. With the completion of this project in 2007, the pulsed power sciences program at Sandia will work with many collaborators to apply this new capability to many areas of high energy density science, including z-pinch-driven inertial confinement fusion, dynamic materials properties, and radiation hydrodynamics. This paper summarizes recent and planned research on the Z facility, the ZR Project, advances in high-photon-energy radiography, derivative applications of the pulsed power program, and advances in the science of pulsed power that could revolutionize the next-generation facilities.

The paper briefly discusses the problem setup for a 1D code that offers wide functionality for simulating electrophysical facilities with different ponderomotive units (PU) intended for studies in the area of high energy density physics and materials properties. 1D magneto-hydrodynamic approximation is used, which also enables simulations of essentially two-dimensional units, such as disc explosive magnetic generators (DEMG), quasi-spherical liners etc. Examples of such simulations are given.

Summary form only given. A short pulse TW-class laser, "Tomcat" (5 J, 5 ps) became recently functional at the Nevada Terawatt Facility. It was coupled to the "Zebra" TW pulsed power generator (1 MA, 100 ns), creating a unique tool for high energy density plasma physics research. The status of ongoing experiments and technical aspects of the coupling will be presented

The Titan laser, designed to produce up to 600 J with pulses of 0.4-200 ps, has begun initial target shots. Coupled with a kJ long-pulse beam, Titan will support high-energy-density physics research at LLNL.

The French Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) began the construction of the Laser Megajoule (LMJ), a 240-beam laser facility, at the CEA laboratory CESTA near Bordeaux. The LMJ will be a cornerstone of the CEA "Programme Simulation", the French analog to the US Stockpile Stewardship Program. The LMJ is designed to deliver 2MJ of 0.35 μm light to targets for high energy density physics experiments and to ultimately obtain ignition and propagating burn with DT targets in the laboratory. The Scientific conception and system design was completed in 1999 and was followed by the Demonstration of an Engineering Prototype which was achieved in early 2003 with operation of one beam of the Ligne d'Integration Laser (LIL) at CESTA, with 9.5 kJ of UV light (0.35 μm) in less than 9 ns from a single laser beam. The Ralization phase of the LMJ facility was initiated in March of 2003 with the construction start of teh building and the target chamber. This paper will present results from the commissioning phase of the LIL program in 2003 and 2004. The activation and commissioning of the full 8 beamlines of LIL over the next 2 years will be part of determining the final specifications and integration and commissioning plans for the LMJ which is expected to demonstrate first light performance through 240 beams by 2010.