Dino Jaroszynski
Professor of Laser Plasma Physics

Research

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 this 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 both the TOPS Laboratory and the ALPHA-X project which began in 2002.

Highlights

Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2005-)

Advisor on the 4GLS Steering Committee (2004-)

Invited talks include, Advanced Accelerator Conference, 2004, International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology 2005, 2007 and Conference on The Physics and Applications of High Brightness Electron Beams 2005