Laser Driven Ion accelerators - current status and perspective

The interaction of ultra-intense lasers with thin foil targets has recently emerged as a route to achieving extreme acceleration gradients and hence ultra-compact proton and ion accelerators. There are a number of distinct physical processes by which the protons/ions can be accelerated to energies in excess of 10 MeV. The recent development is discussed and a new mechanism - Radiation Pressure Acceleration is highlighted as a route to achieving efficient production of relativistic ions beams.