1957 -1960 Inspired by discussions at the "Atoms for Peace" conference in 1957, LLNL physicist John Nuckolls began exploring how to ignite small fusion explosions without a fission bomb. Computer simulations he and his colleagues ran in 1960 suggested that a capsule containing deuterium-tritium fuel could be compressed by a powerful energy source to initiate fusion.

1960 Invention of the laser by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Labs in Malibu, CA.

1962 First laser fusion program. Edward Teller at LLNL initiated a small-scale, classified laser fusion program to study the interaction of lasers with matter.

1972 John Nuckolls at LLNL published a seminal paper in Nature on the possibility of achieving thermonuclear ignition by compressing fuel pellets with lasers - birth of ICF.

1977 University of Rochester’s OMEGA laser built (24 beams).

Late 1970s-1980s: Issues with laser-plasma instabilities drive interest in indirect drive using Hohlraum (hollow room in German).

1984 LLNL’s Nova laser (10 beams, 100 kJ UV) comes online — key step toward indirect drive.

1991 Gérard Mourou establishes the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) at U Mich, seeding its ultrafast/ultra-intense laser program.

1994 Max Tabak et al. propose the Fast Ignition (FI) concept, in which the fuel is compressed by a longer laser pulse, then a hot spot in the compressed fuel is ignited by a fast laser pulse in the petawatt range.

1995 Construction of NIF (National Ignition Facility) at LLNL began.

1997 GEKKO XII laser in Osaka University (12 beams, ~30 kJ UV) upgraded for fast ignition research.

2001-2002 First petawatt-laser experiments at LLNL and Osaka showed the launch of relativistic electron beams driven by PW lasers, suitable for FI.

2002-2004 First integrated FI and ICF experiments at Osaka’s GEKKO XII + PW laser: compressed target + petawatt laser beam → boosted fusion reactions.

2003 The construction of Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) began near Bordeaux, France.

2009 NIF completed (192 beams, 1.8 MJ UV).

2009 onward FIREX-I (Fast Ignition Realization Experiment-I) project started in Osaka. The project involved developing advanced cryogenic targets with foam shells and conical light guides, along with constructing a high-power petawatt laser system to heat the fuel to 5 keV.

2010 The Orion laser at the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) supports both fusion research and stockpile stewardship with high-energy and petawatt beamlines.

2013 U Mich, neutron production in HERCULES laser system with multiple reaction channels (including D–D and D–Li), reporting fluxes comparable to commercial D-D generators, showing the feasibility of lab-scale, laser-driven fusion neutron sources.

2015 The Shenguang (God's Light) laser series in Mianyang, Hunan province, China has steadily scaled up; SG-III (completed 2015, 48 beams, ~180 kJ UV) supports ICF experiments.

2016-2017 Construction and assembly of the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF) as a user facility supporting ICF, laser-plasma acceleration, and QED experiments. 10 PW, 25 fs achieved.

2022 NIF reports scientific breakeven for the first time (output fusion energy > input laser pulse energy). Note that this is not “engineering breakeven”.

2023-2024 Multiple repeat ignition shots at NIF — first sustained demonstration of laser fusion ignition.