Recent highlights of the PALS research program

The Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) research program covers a broad spectrum of laser–plasma experiments in the range of power densities of 1014-5 × 1016 W/cm2, aimed at development and applications of laser plasma-based ion and soft X-ray sources of plasma based ultra-bright XUV lasers in particular. In parallel to these two main lines of research, various principal tasks of laser plasma physics are being studied, such as generation and propagation of laser-induced shock waves, laser ablation, and crater creation processes or laser imprint treatment. Results selected of numerous experimental projects performed at PALS within the period 2002–2004 are surveyed in the paper, experiments with intense soft XUV laser beams being highlighted on the first place.