  Nuclear reactions induced by a strong zeptosecond laser pulse are studied
theoretically in the quasiadiabatic regime where the photon absorption rate is
comparable to the nuclear equilibration rate. We find that multiple photon
absorption leads to the formation of a compound nucleus in the so-far
unexplored regime of excitation energies several hundred MeV above the yrast
line. At these energies, further photon absorption is limited by neutron decay
and/or induced nucleon emission. With a laser pulse of $\approx 50$ zs
duration, proton-rich nuclei far off the line of stability are produced.
