Ken Ledingham
FRSE, William Penney Professor of Laser Nuclear Physics
Ken Ledingham spent most of his professional career at the University of Glasgow where he graduated with B.Sc., Ph.D. and D.Sc. His Ph.D. was carried out in Nuclear Physics but in 1984, he initiated the new field of Resonant Ionisation Spectroscopy specialising in ultra-sensitive detection of atoms and molecules, graduating D.Sc.in 1995. In 1998, the intensity of the lasers was increased dramatically to allow him to establish the first group working on laser-induced nuclear physics. He transferred with his group to the University of Strathclyde in 2001.
| e: k.ledingham 
phys.strath.ac.uk | t: 0141 548 5716 | u: http://silis.phys.strath.ac.uk/
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Research
Ken’s high power laser group at Strathclyde carries out two types of research. Firstly, he uses high power lasers at RAL, the University of Jena and the Forschungzentrum Rossendorf in Dresden to carry out laser induced production of protons, heavy ions, neutrons, and photons. The idea here being that lasers in principle could provide much more compact accelerators than conventional RF accelerators. At present, the group is especially interested in generating monoenergetic protons and heavy ions for hadron therapy as well as coupling lasers and conventional electron linacs to produce high power monoenergetic photons. Secondly over the years his group established the technique of femtosecond laser mass spectrometry (FLMS) working on ATRA (RAL) and TOPS to detect ultra small quantities of environmentally sensitive materials such as explosives, drugs of abuse and environmental pollutants like aromatic hydrocarbons.
Highlights
Strathclyde Research in Laser Nuclear Physics at the University of Jena, Germany: in the research newsletter.
Created William Penney Professor of Laser Nuclear Physics in 2001 by AWE plc.
Visiting Professor at the University of Osaka in 2003, Visiting Professor at the University of Jena 2004 and first visiting Carl Zeiss Professor in Optics at the University of Jena in 2005. Elected Forschungzentrum Dresden Rossendorf Fellow 2007.
EPSRC Physics Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) member 2005-2006.
UK represenatative for the IUPAP Intenrnational Committee for Ultra-Intense Lasers (ICUIL). UK co-ordinator for the International Symposia on Ultra Intense Laser Science (ISUILS).
Given more than 100 invited talks nationally and internationally in the last ten years.
Selected publications
L.Robson, P.T.Simpson, R.J.Clarke, K.W.D.Ledingham, F.Lindau, O.Lundh, T.McCanny, P.Mora, D.Neely, C.G.Wahlstrom, M.Zepf, P.McKenna, "Scaling of proton acceleration driven by petawatt-laser-plasma interactions", Nat. Phys. 3, 58-62 (2007) doi: 10.1038/nphys476
P.McKenna, D.C.Carroll, R.J.Clarke, R.G.Evans, K.W.D.Ledingham, F.Lindau, O.Lundh, T.McCanny, D.Neely, A.P.L.Robinson, L.Robson, P.T.Simpson, C.G.Wahlstrom, M.Zepf, "Lateral electron transport in high-intensity laser-irradiated foils diagnosed by ion emission", Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 145001 (2007) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.145001
H.Schwoerer, S.Pfotenhauer, O.Jackel, K.U.Amthor, B.Liesfeld, W.Ziegler, R.Sauerbrey, K.W.D.Ledingham, T.Esirkepov, "Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets", Nature 439, 445-448 (2006) doi: 10.1038/nature04492
R.J.Clarke, K.W.D.Ledingham, P.McKenna, L.Robson, T.McCanny, D.Neely, O.Lundh, F.Lindau, C.G.Wahlstrom, P.T.Simpson, M.Zepf, "Detection of short lived radioisotopes as a fast diagnostic for intense laser-solid interactions", Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 141117 (2006) doi: 10.1063/1.2358940
P.McKenna, K.W.D.Ledingham, S.Shimizu, J.M.Yang, L.Robson, T.McCanny, J.Galy, J.Magill, R.J.Clarke, D.Neely, P.A.Norreys, R.P.Singhal, K.Krushelnick, M.S.Wei, "Broad energy spectrum of laser-accelerated protons for spallation-related physics", Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 084801 (2005) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.084801
L.Robson, K.W.D.Ledingham, P.McKenna, T.McCanny, S.Shimizu, J.M.Yang, C.G.Wahlstrom, R.Lopez-Martens, K.Varju, P.Johnsson, J.Mauritsson, "Volumetric intensity dependence on the formation of molecular and atomic ions within a high intensity laser focus", J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 16, 82-89 (2005) doi: 10.1016/j.jasms.2004.09.018
F.N.Beg, E.L.Clark, M.S.Wei, A.E.Dangor, R.G.Evans, A.Gopal, K.L.Lancaster, K.W.D.Ledingham, P.McKenna, P.A.Norreys, M.Tatarakis, M.Zepf, K.Krushelnick, "High-intensity-laser-driven Z pinches", Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 095001 (2004) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.095001
F.N.Beg, M.S.Wei, A.E.Dangor, A.Gopal, M.Tatarakis, K.Krushelnick, P.Gibbon, E.L.Clark, R.G.Evans, K.L.Lancaster, P.A.Norreys, K.W.D.Ledingham, P.McKenna, M.Zepf, "Target charging effects on proton acceleration during high-intensity short-pulse laser-solid interactions", Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 2766-2768 (2004) doi: 10.1063/1.1689748
K.W.D.Ledingham, P.McKenna, T.McCanny, S.Shimizu, J.M.Yang, L.Robson, J.Zweit, J.M.Gillies, J.Bailey, G.N.Chimon, R.J.Clarke, D.Neely, P.A.Norreys, J.L.Collier, R.P.Singhal, M.S.Wei, S.P.D.Mangles, P.Nilson, K.Krushelnick, M.Zepf, "High power laser production of short-lived isotopes for positron emission tomography", J. Phys. D 37, 2341-2345 (2004) doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/37/16/019
K.W.D.Ledingham, P.McKenna, R.P.Singhal, "Applications for nuclear phenomena generated by ultra-intense lasers", Science 300, 1107-1111 (2003) doi: 10.1126/science.1080552
P.McKenna, K.W.D.Ledingham, T.McCanny, R.P.Singhal, I.Spencer, M.I.K.Santala, F.N.Beg, K.Krushelnick, M.Tatarakis, M.S.Wei, E.L.Clark, R.J.Clarke, K.L.Lancaster, P.A.Norreys, K.Spohr, R.Chapman, M.Zepf, "Demonstration of fusion-evaporation and direct-interaction nuclear reactions using high-intensity laser-plasma-accelerated ion beams", Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 075006 (2003) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.075006
M.Tatarakis, F.N.Beg, E.L.Clark, A.E.Dangor, R.D.Edwards, R.G.Evans, T.J.Goldsack, K.W.D.Ledingham, P.A.Norreys, M.A.Sinclair, M.S.Wei, M.Zepf, K.Krushelnick, "Propagation instabilities of high-intensity laser-produced electron beams", Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 175001 (2003) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.175001
Current Grants
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