Summary
High-power lasers that provide ultrashort pulses of intense light are a critical technology for fundamental science and a range of industrial, medical, and national security applications. The key constraint on laser power and performance is damage to glass and metal optics: to prevent high-power lasers from destroying themselves, their optics must be large. The size and expense of large optics make higher laser powers impractical and limit possible applications of existing systems. This project replaces optics inside high-power lasers with plasma components, allowing the control of a thousand
