High Energy Density Physics

Welcome to the High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) Group at GIST, led by Byoung-ick Cho.

High energy density means an energy density above 10¹¹ J/m³, equivalent to a pressure of about one million atmospheres. Under these conditions the usual categories of solid, liquid, and plasma no longer apply, and matter behaves as it does inside giant planets and stars rather than in everyday experience. Using ultrafast high-power lasers and X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), we create these states in the laboratory and follow how they evolve on femtosecond timescales.

Our work spans warm dense matter, intense laser plasmas, XFEL science, and plasma atomic physics. We run experiments at XFEL and high-power laser facilities, develop the single-shot X-ray spectroscopic methods those experiments require, and interpret the results with simulation and machine learning. Understanding how matter, photons, and particles interact in this regime underpins fusion energy, the physics of planetary and stellar interiors, and the plasma light sources behind EUV lithography.