News Archives - Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Illustration of laser-plasma amplification: a blue plasma wave transfers energy from a red pump laser to a glowing pink seed laser against a dark background.

Jessica Shaw and Team Achieve Record-Breaking Energy Transfer and Compression in Plasma Amplification Research

September 2, 2026

Congratulations to LLE staff scientist Jessica Shaw and her team, whose groundbreaking research has set a new benchmark in laser-plasma amplification (LPA) by achieving record energy transfer, efficiency, and temporal…

A figure depicting a molecular simulation and a temperature–pressure plot with a shaded region identifying the insulating atomic H–He mixture.

Karasiev and Team Receive Funding from NSF for New Research Investigating Warm Dense Matter

September 1, 2026

Congratulations to Valentin Karasiev, principal investigator (PI), and co-PIs Suxing Hu and Samuel Trickey (University of Florida) on their recent award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for their proposal,…

Marcos Ibáñez Matles standing in front of the NNSS Sedan Crater.

Awards, Honors & Fellowships

Marcos Ibáñez Matles Selected for a Fulbright Award

August 25, 2026

LLE proudly recognizes Marcos Ibáñez Matles for earning the prestigious Fulbright US Student Award! The Fulbright Program places its US Student Award recipients abroad for a year or more to…

Milestone Celebration Marks Three Anniversaries at LLE

August 20, 2026

More than 100 researchers, government leaders, and collaborators from around the world gathered at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) on July 15–17 for a three-day celebration…

Group of graduate students and mentors standing outside Eastman School of Music's Kodak Hall.

Ever Better: Stories of Learning and Collaboration at LLE

August 12, 2026

During his doctoral studies at LLE, David Bishel remembers asking a senior scientist about a problem he was struggling with. Without hesitation, the scientist invited David over to his office…

Group photo of Riccardo Betti, Mark Guardalben, and Varchas Gopalaswamy standing in front of Conesus computer cluster at the University of Rochester’s Primary Data Center.

LLE Selected for DOE Genesis Mission Award to Advance AI-Driven Fusion Research

The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) has been selected for a Phase I award under the US Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, a national initiative to harness…

Illustration of lasers interacting with lenses.

Jeremy Pigeon and Team Publish New Flying-Focus Research in Nature Communications

LLE is thrilled to announce the publication of new research by scientist Jeremy Pigeon and coauthors in Nature Communications. His article, “Spatiotemporal Shaping of Terahertz Radiation Produced by a Two-Color…

Photo of officials cutting a ribbon in front of the MTW-OPAL Target Chamber.

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Celebrates New MTW-OPAL Target Chamber

On Friday, July 17, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the new MTW-OPAL target chamber. LLE has traditionally focused on science created by “long-pulse” lasers, but the development of chirped-pulse amplification and…

Black and white image of Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou.

Chirped-Pulse Amplification at 40

LLE’s Nobel-Winning Innovation that Revolutionized Laser Science Introduction Forty years ago, when then-LLE graduate student Donna Strickland was racing to submit her very first scientific research paper outlining a new…

The OMEGA target chamber at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Celebrating 30 Years of OMEGA

An Enduring Legacy of Leadership and Innovation LLE’s Omega Laser Facility, the largest laser facility at any academic institution in the world and a premier high-energy-density science research center, is…

Artistic interpretation of Flying Focus, two blue rings and an orange ring with waves of blue and orange.

Flying Focus Enables a New Regime of Laser-Plasma Acceleration

Congratulations to LLE Assistant Scientist Charlie Arrowsmith and his coauthors, a team of scientists from the PULSE (Plasma & Ultrafast Laser Science & Engineering) Division and Laser Development Group, on…

Figure showing four implosion shells.

Igumenshchev Paper on Wetted-Foam Target Stability Selected as Editor’s Pick in Physics of Plasmas

Congratulations to LLE senior scientist Igor Igumenshchev and coauthors Alexander Shvydky, Valeri Goncharov, Andrey Solodov, Adrien Pineau, Riccardo Betti, and Jim Knauer, whose paper “Wetted-Foam Target Stability for Laser-Direct-Drive Inertial…