Funding approved for British laser facility

A large, central laser facility for academic users groups has been approved by the British government and will be constructed at the Science Research Council's Rutherford Laboratory at Chilton, Oxfordshire. The facility will have a neodymium‐glass laser system capable of achieving power densities greater than $1015 watts/cm2$ on target. The laser will have a rod amplifier expected to be able to deliver 10 joules in 100 picosec on a plane target or to act as a driver for a disc amplifer capable of delivering more than 200 joules in 300 picosec. Splitting the disc‐amplifier output into two beams will be possible, so that the beams can be separately focused onto a spherical target for symmetrical irradiation.