PhD opportunities

Ultra High-Intensity OPCPA Laser Systems and Light-Matter Autocorrelation.

PhD project for October 2024
Co supervised by Prof Roland A Smith (Plasma Physics Group) and Dr Mary Matthews (Quantum Optics and Laser Science Group) at Imperial and Dr Nick Stuart at RAL
Type – A blend of ~ 70% Experimental and 30% Computational.

This project is a collaboration between Imperial College and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) to develop and exploit a new generation of ultra-high intensity lasers.  RAL is currently upgrading the UK’s Vulcan national laser facility to create one of the world’s most powerful systems, aiming to deliver 20 Petawatts of peak power in a 20 femtosecond pulse. 

A key element of this laser is the use of Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) in which a stretched light pulse is amplified several million times or more by instantaneous transfer of energy from one laser to another in a non-linear optical crystal.  This is much more complex than a traditional laser, but allows for creation of the very high quality sub-picosecond light pulse needed to drive experiments in areas such as particle beam acceleration and x-ray imaging. 

As part of this project we will also aim to use OPCPA for the 1st time to create a new measurement technique that can time resolve the details of a particle beam with unprecedented detail, perhaps just a few femtoseconds.  We believe that this could lead to a “light matter autocorrelation” technique with applications in next generation high-energy physics experiments.

Funding – 50% EPSRC DTA / 50% from the Central Laser Facility (RAL).  Co supervised by Prof Roland A Smith (Plasma Physics Group) and Dr Mary Matthews (Quantum Optics and Laser Science Group) at Imperial and Dr Nick Stuart at RAL.  Funding has been agreed in principle by both partners, but a contract has yet to be signed.