The fast ignitor scheme consists of three stages and relies on ignition of a part of the compressed fusion fuel of an inertial–confinement fusion capsule by an external trigger. A conventional fusion target is imploded uniformly either by a soft X–ray or laser pulse. A hole is bored through the corona plasma resulting in a channel that leads to the edge of the compressed core. This channel is produced by the ponderomotive force and relativistic effects of a high intensity laser pulse with a duration of tens of picoseconds. Finally, an ultraintense picosecond laser pulse is guided through the channel to the critical density and converted to an MeV electron beam. The electron beam then propagates from the critical density to the high–density core igniting the compressed fusion fuel. As a lower compression ratio is required with this scheme the uniformity of driver and the symmetry requirements of the implosion are less stringent. There are, however, several critical plasma and laser physics issues involved in this scheme, including hole boring, electron–beam generation and propagation and the production of a laser pulse with a duration of 1 to 10 ps and an energy between 10 and 100 kJ.