Since the third Workshop on "Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena" in 1973, one area within the scope of this con ference received increased attention: laser fusion. This possi bility was emphasized in February 1977 in a Seminar on US energy policies at The Hartford Graduate Center by John F. O'Leary, Head of the Federal Energy Administration, who said that "by the year 2100, --- laser fusion will be coming along, giving us a new age of choice". Efforts in research and development were stepped up to investigate new concepts of laser ignition of controlled nuclear reactions. Here, one expects no radioactive waste from fuel. Th~ deuterium-tritium reaction - the only one which may be possible with magnetic field confinement in tokamaks - has a highly radio active tritium cycle, while, in principle, laser reactions are possible with pure deuterium, hydrogen-boron or others. The worldwide progress in laser compression was not only stim ulated by the energy crisis, but also by its advancements. In our first Workshop in 1969 F. Floux of the French Limeil Laboratories described his experiments, which led, only one month later, to the production of fusion neutrons in such large numbers as had not been achieved up to then (see appendix of Vol. I these Proceedings).

Inhaltsangabeof Volume 4A.- I. Lasers for Fusion.- Fusion Laser Development at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.- Powerful 12-Channel Laser Installation "Delfin" for Spherical Heating of Thermonuclear Targets.- Advanced Laser Technology for Laser-Induced Fusion Applications.- Laser Damage Phenomenology in Materials.- Verdet Constants near 450 nm in Ho3+ Doped Soda Glass.- Prospects of the High Power Iodine Laser.- Terawatt Iodine Laser.- CO2 Laser Systems for Fusion Experiments.- Recent Developments in High Power CO2 Laser Mode-Locking and Pulse Selection.- CO2 Laser-Plasma Interaction Studies at NRC-Canada.- Direct Nuclear Pumped Lasers - Status and Potential Applications.- II. X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Lasers.- Progress on X-Ray Laser Research.- On the Feasibility of Grasers.- Kinetics of Stimulated Emission in Neutron-Pumped Nuclear Laser Systems.- Nuclear Techniques for Directed Emission and Switched Operation of Grasers.- Possibility of Grasers Using Nuclear Excitation by Electron Transition.- III. Targets.- Cryogenic Microshell Pellets and Other Advanced Targets for Laser Fusion.- Tritium Handling and the Preparation of DT-Containing Micro-Targets for Laser Fusion Experiments.- High-Temperature High-Quality Deuterium Plasma Production by Laser Beams and Interactions with Magnetic Fields.- The Production of Solid Hydrogen Isotope Pellets, Their Interaction with Lasers and the Problem of Filling Magnetic Confinement Configurations with Laser-Produced Plasmas.- IV. Moderate Intensities.- The Physics of Laser-Plasma Interaction in Gaseous Targets.- The Broadening of the Lyman Lines in a Laser- Produced Plasma.- Experimental and Theoretical Studies of Laser-Produced Plasmas at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center.- V. Fusion Oriented Experiments.- Laser Fusion Experiments Using Spherical Shell Targets.- Plasma Experiments with 1.06-?m Lasers at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.- Interaction of Powerful Laser Radiation with Shell Targets.- Laser Driven Implosion Experiments at Limeil.- Theory and Interpretation of Laser Compression Studies at the University of Rochester.- Experimental Studies of the Physics of Laser Fusion.- Initial Target Experiments with the Iodine Laser.- Thermonuclear Fusion Plasma by Lasers Coupling and Implosion.- Author Index.