The high field science group at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) is one of the world's leading university groups, which studies the science, and applications of relativistic plasmas.

At CUOS there are three state-of-the-art high power laser systems. HERCULES is a Ti:Sapphire laser system operating at 300 TW and is at present the highest power short pulse (sub-100 fs) repetitive laser in operation. It has achieved peak focal intensities of 2x10²² W/cm2 and operates at a rep rate of 0.1 Hz. The lambda-cubed   laser system operates at 500 Hz at 0.1 TW - and uniquely through the use of adaptive optics is able to produce relativistic intensities at high repetition rate enabling the systematic study of these plasmas. Finally the T-cubed laser is a 15 TW Nd:Glass laser system operating with longer pulses (400 fsec).

At CUOS we are engaged in both the development of ultra-high power laser technology as well as investigation of the physics of ultra-high intensity laser interaction with matter. Within the group there are number of ongoing research projects involving the generation of relativistic plasmas including "table top" acceleration of relativistic electrons using plasma waves, the generation of high quality energetic ion beams, the production of efficient x-ray and neutron sources and the investigation of phenomena related to generating fusion energy using intense lasers.

We have many ongoing collaborations with researchers in high field science around the world including the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquee in France, the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, and the Institute for Laser Engineering at the University of Osaka in Japan.

Our research is supported by the National Science Foundation via the FOCUS Physics Frontier Center. Additional support is provided by the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health and the University of Michigan.