Intense infrared lasers and laboratory astrophysics

Electrons accelerate due to the huge electric field of the laser itself, and so they can generate very particular plasmas because the ionization process occurs in a few femtosecond, or even in a fraction of a femtosecond. Lasers can be focused now to intensities beyond 1022W/cm2 and there are projects to arrive up 1026W/cm2. Electric fields of the laser arrive now to 1014V/cm and magnetic fields reach the Megatesla. This is a monster density of electromagnetic energy, so that we are close to obtain light denser than matter. In this respect it is very convenient to observe that the well known Einstein's energy - mass equation, E = mc2, can be rewritten for laser light I = ρc3, I being the laser intensity and ρ the equivalent density. There are several PW lasers around the world, in operation or in construction, and one of them is going to be at Salamanca's CLPU.