The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.

We study the optimization of collisionless shock acceleration of ions based on hydrodynamic modelling and simulations of collisional shock waves in gaseous targets. The models correspond to the specifications required for experiments with the $\text{CO}_{2}$ laser at the Accelerator Test Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Vulcan Petawatt system at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In both cases, a laser prepulse is simulated to interact with hydrogen gas jet targets. It is demonstrated that by controlling the pulse energy, the deposition position and the backing pressure, a blast wave suitable for generating nearly monoenergetic ion beams can be formed. Depending on the energy absorbed and the deposition position, an optimal temporal window can be determined for the acceleration considering both the necessary overdense state of plasma and the required short scale lengths for monoenergetic ion beam production.