Abstract

The Central Laser Facility at the UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is home to some of the most advanced high power laser systems in the world. Included in these are the Vulcan PW Facility, which until very recently was the only operating Petawatt laser in the world for much of the last decade and the recently completed Astra-Gemini Facility, the worlds first “high repetition rate” Petawatt laser, shown in Figure 1 below. I will briefly review these and highlight some of the world leading science that has recently been conducted using them by UK, EU and international academic groups.

© 2009 Optical Society of America