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University of Strathclyde
www.strath.ac.uk
silis.phys.strath.ac.uk |
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The Strathclyde Intense Laser Interaction Studies (SILIS)
group has a vibrant research programme which is based
on high-intensity laser-plasma interactions. It is yielding
exciting new results, some of which may have important industrial
applications. This all comes out of having a creative group
of scientists with unique tools that are focusing on new
phenomena resulting from extreme states of matter created
at the focus of high power lasers.
Developments of high-power femtosecond lasers have given
rise to a whole new branch of research where extreme intensities
produce extreme states of matter which are accompanied
by the emission of high energy particles and hard X-ray
photons. At these intensities, matter is fully ionised
and exists as plasma where charge particles can be accelerated
to highly relativistic velocities by electrostatic forces
and light pressures. These forces can be harnessed to
produce compact new sources of coherent and incoherent
electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles, which
can mimic astrophysical conditions. Indeed, a new area
of laboratory scale astrophysics has sprung up around
table-top terawatt femtosecond lasers.
The group at Strathclyde carries out research in several
areas covering both the basic physics of the interaction
of electromagnetic radiation with plasma, which is of
fundamental interest, and the more applied physics of
femtosecond laser micromachining, that is of significant
industrial relevance. The group, which consists of around
20 academic and research staff members, technicians and
students, undertakes several projects using both experimental
and theoretical methods. In addition to the ALPHA-X laser
wakefield accelerator development, the group also investigates
non-linear optics of laser-plasma interactions and the
basic physics of laser-cluster interactions. Many of these
studies investigate the interaction of lasers with plasma
as potential electromagnetic sources from terahertz frequencies
to the hard X-rays. The experimental workhorse for the
group’s studies is a collection of synchronised
Ti:sapphire femtosecond lasers producing up to 20 terawatts
at the TOPS
facility at Strathclyde. The group also carries out
collaborative research at other facilities in the UK and
abroad.
Other research in the group utilises some of the highest
power lasers in the world, such as Vulcan
Petawatt at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (STFC),
as well as the TOPS lasers in order to investigate laser-driven
ion acceleration, transmutation and heavy ion nuclear
reactions. These open up the possibility of many laser-based
medical applications, for example, medical isotope production
or proton-based therapy.
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Prof.
Dino Jaroszynski
e-mail: d.a.jaroszynski-at-strath.ac.uk
Professor Dino Anthony Jaroszynski
was born in Finland in 1955, grew up in South Africa
and settled in the UK in 1977 to complete his studies.
He was awarded a first degree in physics and a PhD
from the University
of Manchester and worked as a research fellow
at a number of well-known European laboratories between
1983 and 1996 before taking up a permanent position
at the University of Strathclyde. Over this period
he established an international reputation and made
a number of significant advances in the field of collective
radiation-matter interactions, a theme that still
dominates his current activities. His publication
record of more than 120 peer-reviewed works, many
of which represent pioneering accomplishments, is
a testament to his creative output. He also contributes
to teaching at Strathclyde. He has set up a new Scottish
user facility, the Strathclyde Electron
and Terahertz to Optical Pulse Source (TOPS).
The facility provides unique state-of-the-art research
tools including a terawatt laser beam for the study
of high field ultra-short pulse radiation-matter interactions,
and several synchronised sources for time resolved
studies using pump-probe techniques tuneable over
a wide spectral range, from X-rays to terahertz frequencies.
A rapidly growing user community utilises the sources
for both basic research and industrial applications.
Dino’s main research activities
have been in the area of collective radiation-matter
interactions in atomic systems, free-electron laser
(FEL)-like devices and more recently in plasmas. The
most outstanding of his scientific achievements was
the first demonstration and study of superradiance
in a FEL. In this work he demonstrated all the basic
scaling laws of superradiance and showed that superradiant
amplification is accompanied by a simultaneous reduction
in the pulse duration, which leads to extremely stable
electromagnetic pulses with durations approaching
a single cycle. This research has major implications
for the development of the next generation tuneable
x-ray and far-infrared FEL sources and the next generation
of ultra-high intensity lasers. His other achievements
include harmonic generation, self-amplification of
spontaneous emission (SASE), two-colour operation
and coherent spontaneous emission in the free-electron
laser. Dino has also been deeply involved in the design,
creation and utilisation of FELs at two very successful
European user facilities: FELIX
in Holland and CLIO
in France. Since arriving at Strathclyde he has continued
this research activity in collective radiation interactions
and broadened it to the study of low energy FELs operating
at microwave frequencies. More recently he has formed
a new group to extend these studies to include non-linear
optical phenomena, parametric processes and collective
radiation emission from plasmas, semiconductors and
dielectric particles. This new exciting activity should
contribute to the development of the next generation
of high power lasers and advanced high brightness
laser-plasma accelerators that could form the basis
of compact tuneable coherent X-ray sources. The combination
of these different areas of physics has the potential
of resulting in significant scientific advances that
could underpin numerous areas of UK science over the
next decades.
He is involved in a number of other
collaborative research projects at Strathclyde and
coordinated a EU/INTAS
project involving Russian, Belarus and Dutch teams
to develop new terahertz sources based on low energy
electron beams. He has projects project to study ultra-short
electron bunch generation, laser-plasma acceleration,
coherent scattering in semiconductor plasmas and surface
physics. He led the consortium to undertake a Basic
Technology Development programme, ALPHA-X, to investigate
laser-plasma accelerators and their applications.
He has a number of international collaborations with
groups in the UK, Italy, Russia, France, the Netherlands,
USA and China.
He now heads the TOPS
section of the SILIS group, undertaking an experimental
and theoretical programme to study collective parametric
plasma/electro-magnetic radiation interactions, laser-plasma
accelerators and free-electron lasers. The programme
includes the study of superradiant amplification,
electromagnetically induced transparency, guiding,
high harmonic generation from relativistic plasmas
and terahertz emission from periodically magnetised
plasmas. These studies are contributing to the development
tuneable X-ray and terahertz sources. He is Director
of the ALPHA-X project which began in 2002 and Principal
Investigator on the current EPSRC grant.
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Prof. Bob Bingham
e-mail: bob.bingham-at-stfc.ac.uk
Bob is a professor in the Atoms,
Beams and Plasmas (ABP) group at Strathclyde though
based at the Space
Science and Technology Department, Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory (STFC).
He is a co-investigator on the current EPSRC grant.
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Prof. Ken Ledingham
e-mail: k.ledingham-at-phys.strath.ac.uk
Ken is a co-investigator on the current
EPSRC grant. As well as being a professor at Strathclyde,
he is the Sir William Penney Professor of Laser Nuclear
Physics (AWE)
and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Department
of Physics and Astronomy, University
of Glasgow.
His present research interests include:
•High Intensity Laser Nuclear and Particle Physics
and Applications with particular reference to Proton
Oncology.
• High Intensity Laser Ionisation and Fragmentation
of Molecules and Applications with particular reference
to Laser Detection of Explosives and other Environmentally
sensitive materials.
• Coupling of High Intensity Lasers with Accelerators
particularly with reference to Thomson Back Scattering.
Ken is the author of more than 250
papers and reports and has given more than 100 invited
talks in the last ten years.
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Prof. Paul McKenna
e-mail: p.mckenna-at-phys.strath.ac.uk
Paul is a co-investigator on the
current EPSRC grant. He is a Professor at Strathclyde
and his research is focused on:
High power laser-driven ion acceleration;
Inertial Fusion Energy: Energetic electron transport
in dense plasma;
Nuclear physics driven by high power lasers;
Dynamics of atomic and molecules in intense laser
fields.
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For details on the other SILIS group
members, visit the group People
page.
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Email addresses: replace -at- with @. This has been for
spam prevention.
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Fig. 1.
Layout of the Plasma Acceleration experiment
at TOPS showing telescopes used to focus the laser pulse into
the capillary
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Fig. 2 (a & b)
Operating capillary: development of the waveguide which will
be used as a wakefield accelerator.
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Fig.3.
Close-up of a working waveguide formed from
a sandwich of two slabs with a profile cut in each segment. Copper
coloured markings are from electrodes.
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Fig. 4 (movie).
The movie is made from a 3-D axisymmetric bunch
dynamics calculation of the acceleration of an ultrashort electron
bunch in a laser wakefield. The movie shows the simulation particles
in longitudinal phase space, where the horizontal axis represents
time measured along the bunch (in fs), while the vertical axis
shows the natural logarithm of the Lorentz factor. Longitudinal
compression of the injected low energy bunch can be observed,
followed by acceleration and growth of energy spread. Also visible
is the 3-D separatrix, which is the largest phase space orbit
within the focusing part of the wakefield. Deformation of the
separatrix during acceleration is due to the influence of the
bunch electrons on the wakefield (beam loading), which is calculated
self-consistently.
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