Laboratory generation of strong magnetic fields opens new frontiers in plasma and beam physics, astro- and solar-physics, materials science, and atomic and molecular physics. Although kilotesla magnetic fields have already been produced by magnetic flux compression using an imploding metal tube or plasma shell, accessibility at multiple points and better controlled shapes of the field are desirable. Here we have generated kilotesla magnetic fields using a capacitor-coil target, in which two nickel disks are connected by a U-turn coil. A magnetic flux density of 1.5 kT was measured using the Faraday effect 650 μm away from the coil, when the capacitor was driven by two beams from the GEKKO-XII laser (at 1 kJ (total), 1.3 ns, 0.53 or 1 μm, and 5 × 10¹⁶ W/cm²).

Opacity effects on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission from laser-produced tin (Sn) plasma have been experimentally investigated. An absorption spectrum of a uniform Sn plasma generated by thermal x rays has been measured in the EUV range (9–19 nm wavelength) for the first time. Experimental results indicate that control of the optical depth of the laser-produced Sn plasma is essential for obtaining high conversion to 13.5 nm-wavelength EUV radiation; 1.8% of the conversion efficiency was attained with the use of 2.2 ns laser pulses.

A high Mach number, radiatively cooled jet of astrophysical interest has been produced using intense laser irradiation of a gold cone. The evolution of the jet was imaged in emission and in radiography, and the temperature was measured with Thomson scattering. Comparison with numerical simulations shows that radiative cooling is a dominant mechanism in the collapse of the Au plasma jet on axis, with temperatures plummeting and peak densities increasing, each by an order of magnitude in $\sim \frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ns}$. In dimensionless terms, aspects of this jet are similar to radiative astrophysical jets.

We have examined the evolution of cylindrically symmetric blast waves produced by the deposition of femtosecond laser pulses in gas jets. In high- $Z$ gases radiative effects become important. We observe the production of an ionization precursor ahead of the shock front and deceleration parameters below the adiabatic value of $\frac{1}{2}$ (for a cylinder), an effect expected when the blast wave loses energy by radiative cooling. Despite significant radiative cooling, the blast waves do not appear to develop thin shell instabilities expected for strongly radiative waves. This is believed to be due to the stabilizing effect of a relatively thick blast wave shell resulting in part from electron thermal conduction effects.