When the laser made its debut in 1960, it was often called a solution looking for a problem. Today the laser is hailed as one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century. Lasers are used in almost all fields of science and technology, and they have become commonplace in daily life, from supermarket scanners to CD players. The recent development of ultrahigh‐power lasers has opened exciting research opportunities in the field of laser‐matter interactions. They range from the interaction of laser light with single atoms to collective effects in plasmas.