Several theoretical and experimental PhD projects are available in a group investigating the interaction of intense electromagnetic fields from high power lasers with plasma. The group leads a challenging project (ALPHA-X ) to harness laser driven plasma waves to accelerate particles to very high energies over short lengths. The goal is to create a centimetre long GeV accelerator. The femtosecond duration relativistic electrons from these accelerators are used as a basis for developing compact synchrotron or free-electron laser sources, which are capable of producing femtosecond duration X-ray pulses extending to hard x-ray and gamma-ray energies. An important focus is developing compact radiation sources based laser-plasma interactions.
The group is investigating an ultra broad bandwidth amplifying medium for use as next generation laser amplifiers that could potentially be used to create particles from vacuum. Here two counter-propagating laser beams, “pump” and “probe”, drive a plasma wave, which backscatters the pump and thus amplifies the probe. A related study involves scattering electromagnetic pulses from a plasma wave or ionisation front which acts as a relativistic mirror, thus providing a means of creating ultra-short pulses.
The experiments are carried out at Strathclyde using a state-of-the-art 800 nm, 30 fs, 1.2 J laser and an RF-photoinjector accelerator. In addition to the long term resident experiments at Strathclyde, the group is also actively utilising other EU laser facilities at the Ecole Polytechnique in France, Lund Laser Centre, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Jena, and CEA Saclay.
An active theory programme investigates laser-plasma acceleration, Raman amplification in plasma, free-electron lasers, and coherent scattering in plasma using – and developing – both analytical methods and numerical – particle-in-cell, hydrodynamic and photon-kinetic – simulations to understand relevant interdependences and explore interesting parameter spaces. The theory group is closely tied to experimental activities and therefore provides an opportunity for comparing theory with experiment.
References:
1. B. Ersfeld and D.A. Jaroszynski, “Raman Backscattering of a Chirped Pump in Plasma”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 165002 (2005)
2. T.P.Rowlands-Rees, C.Kamperidis, S.Kneip, A.J.Gonsalves, S.P.D.Mangles, J.G.Gallacher, E.Brunetti, T.Ibbotson, C.D.Murphy, P.S.Foster, M.J.V.Streeter, F.Budde, P.A.Norreys, D.A.Jaroszynski, K.Krushelnick, Z.Najmudin and S.M.Hooker
Laser-driven acceleration of electrons in a partially ionized plasma channel
Physical Review Letters 100 105005 (2008)
3. S. P. D. Mangles, C. D. Murphy, Z. Najmudin, A. G. R. Thomas, J. L. Collier, A. E. Dangor, E. J. Divall, P. S. Foster, J. G. Gallacher, C. J. Hooker, D. A. Jaroszynski, A. J. Langley, W. B. Mori, P. A. Norreys, F. S. Tsung, R. Viskup, B. R. Walton & K. Krushelnick Monoenergetic beams of relativistic electrons from intense laser–plasma interactions Nature 431, 535 - 538 (2004)
4. H.P.Schlenvoigt, K.Haupt, A.Debus, F.Budde, O.Jackel, S.Pfotenhauer, H.Schwoerer, E.Rohwer, J.G.Gallacher, E.Brunetti, R.P.Shanks, S.M.Wiggins and D.A.Jaroszynski A compact synchrotron radiation source driven by a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator Nature Physics 4 130-133(2008)
5. AJW Reitsma, RA Cairns, R Bingham and DA Jaroszynski, "Efficiency and energy spread in laser-wakefield acceleration", Physical Review Letters, 94, 085004 (2005).
6. D.A. Jaroszynski A, R. Bingham A, E. Brunetti A, B. Ersfeld A, J. Gallacher A, B. van der Geer A, R. Issac A, S.P. Jamison A, D. Jones A, M. de Loos A, A. Lyachev A, V. Pavlov A, A. Reitsma A, Y. Saveliev A, G. Vieux A, S.M. Wiggins A, "Radiation sources based on laser–plasma interactions", Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 364, 689-710 (2006)
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 Results