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The Prague Asterix Laser System facility is conceived as a laboratory providing the basis for experimental research in the field of high-power lasers and their applications, notably in the physics of laser plasmas. It became operational in spring 2000. The principal experimental resource at PALS is the high-power iodine laser system Asterix IV. This instrument was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, and with the latest upgrade in 1991 it provided irradiation facility at the 1 kJ energy level until May 1997. It has been exploited by a wide international research community, within the European Large-Scale Facilities scheme. The Czech Republic’s Academy of Sciences has become the operator of the Asterix laser following an Euratom-assented agreement with the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, signed in June 1997. The funding needed to construct the PALS facility integrating the Asterix laser was approved in December 1997.The construction of the PALS building was completed in March 1999, the installation and commissioning of the laser and of the target facilities in December 1999. Successful operational tests performed in the period November 1999–May 2000 were crowned by a festive launching of the completed laser system on June 8, 2000. The facility has been serving its users since September 2000.
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