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Research newsletter
of the Department of Physics
University of Strathclyde
April 2007

Research newsletter

Welcome to the April 2007 issue of the Departmental Research Newsletter. This issue reports on a very successful international conference recently hosted at New Lanark by Carol Trager-Cowan and colleagues and on a recent Physical Review Letter from, and grant award to, Paul McKenna and co-workers. Details are also given of the forthcoming University Research Day and a Cormack meeting on astronomy to be hosted by the Department. The last items gives details of a rather prestigious list of speakers at another up-coming meeting including Gian-Luca Oppo in its number.

Contents
University Research Day
New Lanark hosts Electron Backscatter Diffraction Meeting
Study into electron transport in dense plasma leads to new EPSRC funding
Cormack meeting on multi-wavelength astronomy
Rubbing shoulders with giants!

[RWM]

University Research Day

A University Research Day is to be held in the Assembly Halls on 6th June 2007 and participation is open to all academic staff and researchers from all 5 faculties - please register via the website below (the staff deadline is 3 May, the student deadline is just gone but perhaps there will be a few days grace...). This University Research Day has two main aims. The first is to celebrate the quality of research across the whole university. The second is to enable you to see some of the research which is going on elsewhere in the University, talk to the people concerned and maybe even generate ideas for collaboration across normal department boundaries.

I have offered to provide posters describing research in the Physics Department, with the existing general posters describing our research Divisions in mind. If anyone has additional research posters that they wish to display under a Physics Department section please let me (RWM) know. Note that student posters should be entered separately due to the prizes on offer.

I have also been asked for a "hands-on" display on a particular area of our research to go with the posters. Any offers would be welcome.

To find out more about the Research Day or to register for any of the events, please visit the website and forms via this link: http://ewds.strath.ac.uk/btg/ResearchDay/tabid/180/Default.aspx

[RWM]

New Lanark hosts Electron Backscatter Diffraction Meeting

Between the 26th and 28th of March 2007 around 100 scientists, engineers, equipment and software manufacturers came to New Lanark for the 14th Conference and Workshop on Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD): its applications and related techniques to discuss their latest work. EBSD and related techniques allow scientists and engineers to investigate the structure of materials ranging from rocks, to steel, to semiconductor thin films, to the calcite eyes of trilobites. The conference was organised by Carol Trager-Cowan along with Angus Wilkinson (University of Oxford), Stuart Wright (EDAX/TSL) and Karen Lonsdale (The Royal Microscopical Society). For further details see http://www.rms.org.uk/event_EBSD.shtml

This is the first time the EBSD conference had come to Scotland. In addition to the usual 2 day meeting there was an extra day to celebrate Professor David Dingley's contributions to the development and application of EBSD and related techniques. To this end, present and former colleagues of David from across the globe travelled to New Lanark to contribute to this special day - including delegates from England , Wales , USA , Germany , The Netherlands, France , Sweden , Denmark , Austria , Switzerland , Japan , South Korea and India.

New Lanark proved to be is an ideal venue in which to hold the meeting as it is such a beautiful and intimate location. The weather was bright and sunny allowing delegates to enjoy a pleasant walk between the end of the day's session and the whisky tasting followed by dinner.

[CTC]

Study into electron transport in dense plasma leads to new EPSRC funding

The study of fast electron generation and transport in intense laser interactions with dense plasma is of fundamental importance for the fast ignition approach to inertial fusion and for the optimisation of high power laser-driven ion and X-ray sources. This has been the subject of intensive investigation over the past few years.

In a recent study, published in Physical Review Letters [1], Dr. Paul McKenna and co-workers present an experimental investigation of relativistic electron transport in ultraintense laser-irradiated foils, diagnosed via spatially resolved measurements of multi-MeV ion emission . By measuring ion emission from the edges of thin target foils the group report quantitative measurements of the 2D spatial distribution of electric field formation due to lateral electron transport in the foil.

The experimental measurements and simulations using a particle-in-cell (PIC) model reveal enhanced electron densities and electric fields at solid-vacuum boundaries, and shed light on the dynamics of the ex pansion of the relativistic electron cloud. The figure (below) shows an example of the simulated electron density distribution and resulting electric field formation in a laser-irradiated target foil.

Dr. McKenna has recently secured £0.66M funding from an EPSRC responsive mode grant for a new programme of research into electron transport in laser-produced high energy and density plasma. This will involve the development and application of the diagnostic techniques introduced in this paper.

[1] McKenna et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. , 98, 145001 (2007)

[PMcK]

RSE Cormack meeting on Multi-Wavelength Astronomy

MULTI-WAVELENGTH ASTRONOMY; The observable universe from radio to gamma rays
Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Friday May 11th 2007 10am - 6pm

The annual meeting of The Royal Society of Edinburgh Cormack Bequest Committee, for all professional Astronomers and Space Scientists in Scotland, is to be held at the Department on May 11th. Registration is free, but to allow correct catering for the participants, all participants are asked to register ONLINE before THURDSAY 3rd MAY.

The final programme is currently being detailed - applicants will be informed if they will be giving an oral / poster contribution and the length of their talk by Friday 27th April 2007. Late registrants are welcome to bring posters - please indicate on your application form.

For further details, registration, accommodation suggestions etc please visit: http://phys.strath.ac.uk/cormack_meet

[HJF]

Rubbing shoulders with giants !

At the end of May the Lorenzo Narducci Memorial Symposium will be held in Philadelphia and will include a presentation by our own Gian-Luca Oppo in the speaker list. Investigation of the programme (see
http://www.physics.drexel.edu/narducci/Schedule.html ) reveals that Gian-Luca will speak on the same day as 4 Nobel Prize winners - pretty good company !

[RWM]

Are you reading your own copy of the Research Newsletter?

The Research Newsletter is published at (approximately) six week intervals. It covers research news stories emerging from the Physics department. The editor (Prof. Robert Martin) would be pleased to receive information for inclusion in the newsletter at any time. If you would like to receive the Research Newsletter every month, please send an e-mail message to lists-at-phys.strath.ac.uk with the only content in the body of the email message being "subscribe newsletter". To unsubscribe, do the same but with "unsubscribe newsletter" in the body.