Prof. Dino Jaroszynski

e-mail: dino-at-phys.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.

Prof. Bob Bingham

e-mail: r.bingham-at-rl.ac.uk

Bob is a professor in the Atoms, Beams and Plasmas 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.

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.

Dr Paul McKenna

e-mail: p.mckenna-at-phys.strath.ac.uk

Paul is a co-investigator on the current EPSRC grant. He is a Lecturer 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.

Dr Riju Issac

e-mail: riju-at-strath.ac.uk

Riju received an M.Sc. Degree from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India in 1993 and later received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cochin University of Science and Technology in 1998 for his work on Dynamics of Plasma Generated from Solid Targets by Strong Laser Fields. Thereafter he joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India as a Visiting Fellow before joining Strathclyde in 2000. 
At present he is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde working on the ALPHA-X project. His other interests include nonlinear optics, intense laser matter interaction with solids and rare gas clusters, ultrashort X-ray generation and high harmonic generation.

Dr Mark Wiggins

e-mail: m.wiggins-at-phys.strath.ac.uk

Born in N. Ireland in 1973, Mark obtained his BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Strathclyde. His doctoral thesis (1999) involved a study of the interaction between short pulses of electromagnetic radiation and relativistic electrons in free-electron laser type devices for the generation of high-power, short duration microwave pulses.
From Nov. 2001 until July 2004, he worked at the Instituto de Optica, Madrid as part of the E.U. funded research network XPOSE that concerned ultrafast probing of laser-matter interactions. He is now a senior research fellow in the SILIS group and has held the position of ALPHA-X project manager since January 2006.
During the period July 2005 - December 2006, Mark was employed as a Research Associate in the group of Robin Tucker at Lancaster University (with funding from the Cockcroft Institute) while remaining at Strathclyde as a visiting researcher.

Dr Enrico Brunetti

e-mail: enrico.brunetti-at-strath.ac.uk

Enrico is from Pomarance, Italy and obtained his Ph.D. degree in the group in 2005. His postgraduate research involved the study of high-harmonic radiation generated in a fs laser pulse-gas interaction including effects such as ionisation and quantum interference.

Dr Bernhard Ersfeld

e-mail: bernhard.ersfeld-at-strath.ac.uk

Personal:

• Date of birth: 22/11/1963
• Family: Married, three children.

At University:

• 4/1991: ‘Diplom’ (MSc) at RWTH (University of Technology) Aachen, Germany.
• Thesis on “Dielectric Function of a Suspension of Polarizable Spheres, taking the Retardation into Account”.

10/1996: PhD at RWTH Aachen;

• Thesis on “Effective Elasticity of a Suspension of Spheres”

Post-Doctoral Research – Laser-plasma Interactions:

• 1996-1997: University of St Andrews (Prof. R. A. Cairns)
  • Magnetic field generation by fast electrons
  • Harmonic and subharmonic response to Laser irradiation.
• 1998-1999 - Imperial College, London (Prof. A. R. Bell)
  • Kinetic modelling of collisional plasmas.
• Since 1999: University of Strathclyde (Prof. D. A. Jaroszynski)
  • Non-linear collective effects...
    

Dr Ranaul Islam

e-mail: ranaul.islam-at-strath.ac.uk

Ranaul was born in India and received his Ph.D. in physics from the Technical University Dresden in January 2007 for his research work on "Noble-gas atomic clusters illuminated by intense femtosecond laser pulses".
From February to October 2007, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University in Japan, where he worked on many-body electron dynamics of fullerenes (C₆₀) due to laser coupling using Time Dependent Density Functional Theory in the group of Prof. Hirohiko Kono.
Since November 2007 he has been a research fellow in the SILIS group as a theoretician pursuing research on laser wakefield acceleration for the ALPHA-X project.

Dr Gaurav Raj

e-mail: gaurav.raj-at-strath.ac.uk

Gaurav was born in Varanasi, India, in 1979. He obtained his M.Sc. Degree in Physics with specialisation in “Lasers and Opto-Electronics” from University of Lucknow, India in 2002 and later received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University in May 2007 for his work on “Nonlinear Parametric Instabilities in Laser Plasma-Interaction”. Since then he was working there as a Senior Research Fellow before joining the University of Strathclyde in November 2008.
At present he is a Research Fellow in the SILIS group as a theoretician pursuing research on laser wakefield acceleration and nonlinear parametric processes in laser-plasma interaction, for the ALPHA-X project.

Dr Gregory Vieux

e-mail: g.vieux-at-strath.ac.uk

Born in France, Gregory received is B.Sc. from the University Lyon 1 and obtained his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Strathclyde where he worked on the first developments of a plasma amplifier based on Raman backscattering.
From Sept. 2004 to Dec. 2006 he was a member of the ITFIP group at the Laboratoire de Physique des Gaz et des Plasmas (LPGP), Orsay where he worked on collisionally pumped optical-field ionised X-UV lasers and laser wakefield acceleration. In 2007 he rejoined the Strathclyde group to work on the ALPHA-X and Raman amplifier projects.

Dr Gregor Welsh

e-mail: g.welsh-at-strath.ac.uk

Gregor Welsh obtained his PhD degree from the University of Strathclyde in May 2008. His thesis was entitled "Understanding and Control of Ultrafast Currents for Terahertz Pulse Generation" and carried out in the Biomolecular and Chemical Physics group under the supervision of Prof. Klaas Wynne. This work involved optimising the biasing method used on photoconductive antennas for terahertz emission and also studying novel electron-emission type terahertz emitters manufactured from nanostructured surfaces.
In 2008 he joined the SILIS group as a research fellow further developing new high power terahertz sources. Gregor has also been appointed TOPS laboratory manager.
Out-with his research Gregor is kept busy working on his family farm, based in Ayrshire, producing high quality Scotch beef.

Mr Dave Clark

e-mail: d.clark-at-strath.ac.uk

Research technician

Mr Tom McCanny

e-mail: t.mccanny-at-phys.strath.ac.uk

Research technician

Mr Richard Shanks

e-mail: richard.shanks-at-strath.ac.uk

Richard is from Thurso, Scotland. He obtained his first degree, an MSci in Physics, from the University of Strathclyde in 2006 and has been a postgraduate student in the group since. His interests lie in the application of laser-plasma accelerated electrons in magnetic undulators to produce a compact synchrotron light source.
Richard is also undertaking a masters in Technological Entrepreneurship from the Strathclyde Business School at night classes, to gain the skills and experience required to develop university research through to a commercial opportunity.

Ms Maria Pia Anania

e-mail: maria.anania-at-strath.ac.uk

Maria Pia is from Italy and is a postgraduate student in the group.

Mr Sijia Chen

e-mail: sijia.chen-at-strath.ac.uk

Sijia is from China and is a postgraduate student in the group.

Ms Silvia Cipiccia

e-mail: silvia.cipiccia-at-strath.ac.uk

Silvia is from Italy and is a postgraduate student in the group.

Mr John Farmer

e-mail: john.farmer-at-strath.ac.uk

John is a postgraduate student in the group.

Ms Xue Yang

e-mail: xue.yang-at-strath.ac.uk

Xue studied physics at the Capital Normal University in Beijing from 2003-2007 and is now a postgraduate student in the SILIS group

Ms Salima Abu-Azoum

e-mail: salima.abu-azoum-at-strath.ac.uk

Salima is a postgraduate student in the group.

Mr Constantin Aniculaesei

e-mail: constantin.aniculaesei-at-strath.ac.uk

Born in Romania, Constantin received is B.Sc. from the University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza", Iasi in 2005. He is interested in plasma physics and plasma-matter interactions. He has been involved in different projects concerning magnetron discharges, thermionic vacuum arcs and laser ablation. Now he is now a postgraduate student in the SILIS group.

Mr Ronan Burgess

e-mail: ronan.burgess-at-strath.ac.uk

Ronan gained the MSci Physics with Visual Simulation degree from the University of Strathclyde in 2009. He is now studying as a PhD student, interested in Laser Wakefield Acceleration.

Ms Grace Manahan

e-mail: grace.manahan-at-strath.ac.uk

Born in the Philippines, Grace received her BS and MS degrees from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2006 and 2008, respectively. She is a SUPA scholar.