Research newsletter

Dr. Yu Chen joined the department in April taking up a Lectureship in Molecular Nanometrology. Back in 1995 she joined the Cavendish Laboratory as a visiting scientist working on C 60 -based materials after winning a one year scholarship. She received her PhD in 2000 from University of Birmingham for her work on low energy electron excitation on surfaces. Afterwards, she worked in Nanoscale Physics Research Laboratory in Birmingham as a research fellow and then a principal research scientist. Her research interests centre around nanoclusters and nanostructured surfaces utilizing techniques such as electron spectroscopies, electron microscopies and e-beam lithography.

Based in Photophysics group, she will set up a nanotechnology lab. with equipment brought from Birmingham including a high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and a size-selected cluster source. She will explore metal nanoparticles for their potential applications in biosystems. Currently she is looking for a motivated postgraduate student to join this project (further details). Yu's office is JA6.07 and telephone extension is 3087.

[RWM/YC]

Scientists from Strathclyde and Paisley are amongst a consortium of eight UK institutions which has recently secured £4.6M funding from EPSRC under the Basic Technology scheme to develop high power laser driven ion sources. The LIBRA (Laser Induced Beams of Radiation and their Applications) project aims to develop ion production from high-repetition, ultrashort laser pulses as a reliable, generic technology. The joint Strathclyde-Paisley SUPA contribution is led by Dr. Paul McKenna and the team includes Dr. Wilfried Galster, Professor Dino Jaroszynski, Professor Ken Ledingham and Dr. Klaus Spohr. The project is headed by Queens University Belfast and the other partners in the collaboration are Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Imperial College London, Surrey University Ion Beam Centre, University Hospital Birmingham and Southampton University .

The 4-year project will concentrate on developing high power laser-based sources of protons, heavier ions and gamma rays. The specific objectives are to develop the relevant technology for high-flux, high-repetition source delivery and characterisation. These will be achieved via a combination of innovative developments in target production and delivery, detector technology, beam property optimization and control.

[Above] Schematic illustrating ion acceleration driven by the interaction of a high power laser pulse with a thin foil target.

The possibility of using high power lasers to generate high-quality beams of energetic, multi-MeV, ions is attracting large global interest.  In a recent study, published in Nature Physics 3, 58 (2007) Dr. Paul McKenna and co-workers use the presently most powerful laser in the world, the Vulcan Petawatt laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, to extend the energy and intensity range over which proton scaling is experimentally investigated. These are extended by an order of magnitude, compared to previous studies, up to 400 J and 6e20 Wcm-2 respectively . The results provide important new understanding of the scaling of proton acceleration in this ultraintense laser pulse regime and are an important step towards potential applications of laser-driven proton sources.

For further information on this work please contact Dr. Paul McKenna, University of Strathclyde (p.mckenna@phys.strath.ac.uk)

[PMcK]

Proton energy scaling with laser intensity. From Nature Physics 3, 58 (2007)

Congratulations to Prof. Geoff Duxbury who has been awarded one of the 2007 Emeritus Fellowships by the Leverhulme Trust for a research project entitled "Controlling molecules with chirped coherent light". The fellowship has been awarded for 24 months starting from September 2007. This will allow Geoff to continue working closely with Nigel Langford on research into novel uses of quantum cascade lasers, as well as collaborating with research groups at Oxford University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and  Princeton University in the USA,  and other research groups in Germany and the UK.

[RWM/GD]