Atomic clusters in ultrahigh intensity light fields

The development of ultrashort pulse table top lasers with peak pulse powers in excess of 1 TW (1012 W) has permitted studies of matter subject to unprecedented light intensities. Such interactions are highly nonperturbative and have accessed exotic regimes of multiphoton atomic and high energy-density plasma physics. Very recently, the nature of the interactions between these very high intensity laser pulses and atomic clusters of a few hundred to a few thousand atoms has come under study. Such studies have found some rather unexpected results, including the striking finding that these interactions appear to be more energetic than interactions with either single atoms or solid density plasmas.