Summary
In my research, I use intense laser-plasma interactions to create new kinds of compact particle accelerators and X-ray light sources, and I exploit the unique properties of these sources to explore the physics of extreme conditions.
Particle accelerators are well known as important tools of scientific discovery, but they are large and expensive machines. The laser wakefield acceleration technique I research now allows high-energy particle and X-ray beams to be produced in a university size laboratory. Using these accelerators we can now produce multi-GeV electron beams in a plasma accelerator just a few centimetres long (something which a conventional accelerator can only achieve in one hundred metres or more).
The unique properties of the beams that laser wakefield accelerators produce, together with their co-location and easy synchronization with other high-power laser sources, are now helping to drive a new generation of experiments. These experiments aim to understand how matter behaves under extreme conditions – extremely high temperatures, densities and electromagnetic field intensities compared to anything found on Earth, but conditions that are surprisingly common and important throughout the universe.
Publications
Journals
Cole JM, Behm KT, Blackburn TG, et al., Experimental observation of radiation reaction in the collision of a high-intensity laser pulse with a laser-wakefield accelerated electron beam
Kneip S, McGuffey C, Martins JL, et al., A Bright Spatially-Coherent Compact X-ray Synchrotron Source
Cowley J, Thornton C, Arran C, et al., 2017, Excitation and Control of Plasma Wakefields by Multiple Laser Pulses, Physical Review Letters, Vol:119, ISSN:0031-9007
Sarri G, Warwick J, Schumaker W, et al., 2017, Spectral and spatial characterisation of laser-driven positron beams, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol:59, ISSN:0741-3335
Smid M, Gonzalez IG, Ekerfelt H, et al., 2017, Highly efficient angularly resolving x-ray spectrometer optimized for absorption measurements with collimated sources, Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol:88, ISSN:0034-6748