Held as part of the Laserlab-Europe Annual Meeting 2025, the Workshop on Targets for Laser Fusion brought together a diverse group of about 50 experts from public institutions and private industry to address the evolving challenges in the latest trends in Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) target design, fabrication and experimentation, with a focus on tailored solutions for highly demanding requirements.
The presentations covered a wide range of topics, including numerical activities, experiments and development of materials, techniques and technologies for production. Particular emphasis was placed on the latest advancements in 3D printing technologies and on the fabrication of targets for flagship facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the United States and the Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) in France.
The following round table mainly focused on the topic of “how to push target manufacturing at the industrial level for future experiments at high repetition rate”. The discussion encompassed the topics of funding for private companies and public institutions, the creation of public-private partnerships as well as the possibilities of staff exchanges through the Lasers4EU project.
As targets for laser fusion involve multiple disciplines, the audience identified high needs for training or PhD courses involving hands-on trainings to empower young researchers. Multi-disciplinarity was the main criteria fist recognized for the courses.
The technical discussion highlighted the importance of issues related to target injection, metrology and the capability to know with certainty that a specific target is in place with specific precision.
The workshop involved three Laserlab-Europe Expert Groups: Laser-driven ICF/IFE, Laser-generated electromagnetic pulses, and Micro- and nano-structured materials for experiments with high-power lasers.
