The Possibilities for Scientific Use of High-Energy Lasers: From Now to the NIF

The relationship of the NIF mission to the future use of high-energy lasers for scientific research is discussed. A brief outline of the reasons that scientific use is being encouraged is followed by two examples of the type of research that have been performed on the existing high-energy lasers. By showing which technical achievements have been made, we can then illustrate what projects are currently ripe for investigation on existing facilities, and we can also conservatively predict what research is important but will have to wait for NIF-class lasers.