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Atoms, Beams & Plasmas Group

There is an exciting selection of PhD research projects available in the Atoms, Beams and Plasmas research group. The staff who supervise PhD students in this research group include (in alphabetical order) Dr. Nigel Badnell, Prof. Bob Bingham, Prof Geoff Duxbury, Dr Adrian Cross, Dr. Wenlong He, Dr. Brian McNeil, Prof Alan Phelps (group leader), Dr. Kevin Ronald, Dr Robbie Stewart, Prof Hugh Summers and Dr. Colin Whyte. Prof. Paul Thomas is a Visiting Professor and there are numerous international research visitors to the group each year including Professors Bratman, Ginzburg and Denisov. There are more than ten PhD students carrying out their research within the group. The group enjoys excellent links with large research laboratories such as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the Daresbury Laboratory and the Culham Laboratory in the UK and CERN in Geneva and also a wide range of industrial companies. As well as the normal research council funded studentships which students joining the group find attractive, this research group can also provide CASE studentships for students who are interested. The CASE studentships have the advantages of additional bursary funds for the student and the valuable extra experience and interest of carrying out a part of the PhD research while visiting another location. Anyone interested in either one of the standard PhD research studentships, or a CASE studentship, should contact the staff member named within each individual project described below. The projects listed below are only examples of some of the PhD projects that are available in this research group and details of these and further projects can be obtained from Prof. Alan Phelps at a.d.r.phelps-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Projects

  1. Novel Accelerators for Medical Applications
  2. Experimental Interactions Between High Brightness Pseudospark Relativistic Electron Beam Pulses and Electromagnetic Waves
  3. Novel Accelerators for High Energy Particle Physics
  4. Electron Cyclotron Masers in Space and in the Laboratory
  5. Theory and Modelling of a Fourth Generation Light Source (4GLS)
  6. Novel High Power Electromagnetic Sources
  7. Physical Modelling of a Wave-Coupler and S-Type Mode Transformer
  8. Novel methods for leak detection in JET and ITER

Novel Accelerators for Medical Applications

Supervisor: A.D.R. Phelps

There are new and exciting possibilities of using innovative types of gyro-amplifiers to extend the frequency range of the accelerating fields in accelerators that are used in medical applications. The advantage if this can be achieved is that a more compact accelerating structure can be used. The research group is a founding member of the UK Faraday Partnership in High Power RF and this CASE studentship would be with one of the industrial companies that are also members of the Faraday Partnership. This PhD studentship involves primarily experimental research but there are also excellent opportunities for a student who has an interest in computational research to supplement the experiments with computer simulations. For further details please contact Prof. Alan Phelps at a.d.r.phelps-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Experimental Interactions Between High Brightness Pseudospark Relativistic Electron Beam Pulses and Electromagnetic Waves

Supervisors: A.W. Cross, A.D.R. Phelps

This is a project to investigate the physics of a pseudospark (PS) discharge, to enhance our understanding of how to generate electron pulses with the highest simultaneous current density and brightness of any known electron beam source is proposed. A pseudospark discharge is a low pressure (10-500mtorr), self-sustained, transient hollow cathode discharge which occurs in a special confining geometry in various gases such as nitrogen and argon. Exploring the physics of a pseudospark discharge is adventurous, since the reasons behind the ability of a PS to produce electron beam pulses of such exceptional beam quality and brightness are unclear. The project will be mainly experimental concentrating on the production, transportation and post- acceleration of PS electron beam pulses. The high brightness electron beam pulses produced are needed in the next generation of accelerators and hence there exists a possibility for a case studentship in co-operation with CERN to be set up. This would enable the student to work both here in the department of physics, university of Strathclyde as well as at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. The project is 60%experimental, 20% theoretical and 20% computational. For further details please contact Dr. Adrian Cross at a.w.cross-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Novel accelerators for High Energy Particle Physics Supervisor

Supervisor: A.D.R. Phelps

The CLIC experiment in CERN (Geneva) is aimed at making a leap of more than an order of magnitude in the energy that can be obtained in High Energy Particle Accelerators. This PhD studentship involves collaborative research with CERN which would involve the student in visiting Geneva to carry out a part of the research although the research project would be based at Strathclyde. For further details please contact Prof. Alan Phelps at a.d.r.phelps-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Electron Cyclotron Masers in Space and in the Laboratory

Supervisors: A.D.R. Phelps, R.Bingham, K. Ronald

In 2003 an EPSRC funded research project has started in the Atoms, Beams and Plasmas group to study the electron cyclotron maser instability mechanism in the laboratory with the aim of relating this to the theory that this is the mechanism which explains the electromagnetic emissions in the Earth’s auroral regions. The laboratory experiment aims to model the space situation and the PhD studentship involves primarily experimental research to investigate whether this is the same phenomenon that space satellites observe in the auroral regions. For a student with an interest in computing there are also opportunities to include in the research project computational simulations to complement the experiments. The staff involved in this research project are Prof. Alan Phelps, Prof. Bob Bingham and Dr. Kevin Ronald. There are also opportunities for a student with an interest in exploring satellite observations to visit the Space Physics Division of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and there is the potential to hold this studentship as a CASE studentship sponsored by CCLRC. For further details please contact Prof. Alan Phelps at a.d.r.phelps-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Theory and Modelling of a Fourth Generation Light Source (4GLS)

Supervisor: B.W.J. McNeil

The Department of Physics is developing strong collaborative links with the 4GLS project, one of the major components of the Centre for Accelerator Science Imaging and Medicine to be based at the Daresbury_Laboratory in the U.K. This exciting project will build a unique suite of tunable Free_Electron_Laser radiation sources from the IR to the XUV. FELs can produce powers at wavelengths unrivalled by conventional lasers and the radiation they emit will be used at the 4GLS facility as tools to facilitate research across the breadth of medicine, science and engineering.
The most challenging FEL to design and build will be that operating in the XUV and it is in this area that the student can expect to carry out research. With only one such source in the world, at the Tesla_Test_Facility in Hamburg, the student will gain a broad experience of state-of–the-art FELs. The theory and modelling of highly non-linear pulse propagation, ultra-short pulse generation, harmonic generation, full 3-D simulation, FEL seeding options and start-to-end simulations will contribute to the research in the development of the 4GLS facility. Clearly, the student should have good analytical and computational skills. This is a CASE project and the student must be prepared to visit and work with the Daresbury sponsors for a minimum of three months during the 3 year PhD programme. At the end of the PhD the successful student should be well placed to obtain employment at many of the FEL facilities worldwide. Further details from Dr Brian McNeil at b.w.j.mcneil-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Novel High Power Electromagnetic Sources

Supervisors: A.D.R. Phelps, A.W. Cross

Research on novel sources of coherent free electron electromagnetic radiation has been successfully pursued in this research group for several years. The sources studied include gyro-oscillators and gyro-amplifiers, CARMs, free electron lasers, Cherenkov masers and BWOs. There are now appearing exciting new applications of these sources in plasma diagnostics, particularly in addressing the challenging measurement of alpha particles in tokamaks. This CASE studentship would either suit an experimentalist, or a theoretician interested in computational simulation. For further details please contact Prof. Alan Phelps at
a.d.r.phelps-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Physical Modelling of a Wave-coupler and S-type Mode Transformer

Supervisors: A.D.R. Phelps, I.V. Konoplev

The project is aimed at studying theoretically, computationally and experimentally directional waveguide couplers and S-type mode transformers. The theoretical investigation will be based on the use of Maxwell’s equations. To develop a computer model the use of the scattering matrix approach will also be considered. Finally the properties of the mode couplers and transformers will be experimentally studied using a Scalar Network Analyser. The project is mainly theoretical and computational with a small amount of experimental research. For further details please contact Prof. Alan Phelps at a.d.r.phelps-at-strath.ac.uk*.
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Novel methods for leak detection in JET and ITER

Supervisor: Prof H.P. Summers

An exciting opportunity for a PhD student is available at the interface between diagnostic physics and engineering measurement systems for fusion plasmas. The research program is of direct relevance to the international tokamak experiment (ITER) currently under construction in France. The student will be based at the JET Facility, Culham Laboratory near Oxford where the development will take place. All necessary supplementary training will be provided as part of the European skills development for fusion programme. The successful student will expect to travel extensively within Europe.

JET is a 200m 3 vacuum vessel where deuterium (and tritium) gas is heated to very high temperatures to study magnetic-confinement thermonuclear fusion. The PhD project concerns the critical issue of leak detection. Mass spectrometer vacuum leak detection on tokamaks, that are operated with deuterium, is complicated by the similarity of mass of D 2 and He. Various systems have been developed to prevent deuterium from reaching the mass spectrometer, but they are complex, sometimes unreliable, require specialist staff, and are often responsible for unnecessary delays during leak testing. An alternative technique is to distinguish between D 2 and He by spectroscopic methods. Developments in turbo-molecular pumps have increased the tolerable backing pressure to several mbar. The proposed new approach will be to use this capability to ‘concentrate’ (pressurise) the gas from the tokamak into a measurement cell. Then, a technique such as glow discharge may be used to excite spectral emission. The spectra of D and He are well known and are used for sophisticated diagnostic analyses in many plasmas. In the present case, a suitable characteristic line of He will be sought allowing unambiguous detection of helium, with the signal in principle, calibrated and converted to a leak rate. This brings together many physics, atomic and technology problems, which would need to be solved before this technique could be adopted for a real tokamak. It is intended to seek to prototype such as system on JET for ITER. The aim of this project is to develop a ‘turn-key’, always-present, sensitive, short time constant, leak detection system that eliminates some of the ‘black art’ from the leak detection process.

Application is invited from recent graduates who are UK citizens, or citizens of EU states who have at least three years residency in the UK. The studentship is a 3½ year Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council CASE award with UKAEA Culham Laboratory as the sponsoring industrial partner. Salary is at standard EPSRC rates, currently £12600/annum, with a sponsor supplement of £4205/annum. The successful applicant will have an honours degree in either physics or engineering at not less than the upper second classification. He/she is likely to have a physics degree with strong demonstrated ability in practical application, or have an engineering degree with strong interest in physics.

For further details please contact Prof. Hugh Summers at summers-at-phys.strath.ac.uk*.
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