University of Strathclyde
Contact: Prof. Paul McKenna
The University of Strathclyde Glasgow in the UK is committed to 'useful learning' through the provision of relevant, high quality, educational opportunities, the global application of research and focus on knowledge exchange to benefit the wider economy and society. The University of Strathclyde has the third largest number of students of the Scottish universities and was awarded UK University of the Year 2012/13 by the Times Higher Education. Strathclyde is to be the base for the Centre for Applied Photonics in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Europe's largest organisation for contract research.
The Intense Laser Interaction Studies (SILIS) group within the University conducts both experimental and theoretical research into high-power laser-plasma interactions. The group hosts the ALPHA-X facility, a 10 Hz, 40 TW, 30 fs Ti:Sa laser system, which is used for studies of electron acceleration, X-ray production, and their applications, and the TOPS facility , a 1 kHz, 3 mJ, 30 fs, Ti:sapphire laser. A new £8m, 1200 m2 facility (SCAPA) is currently being developed, funded by the University and the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), which will host a 5 Hz, 200 TW, 30 fs, Ti:sapphire laser. Group members are also frequent users of high power laser facilities at the UK’s Central Laser Facility, within the Laserlab-Europe consortium and further afield. The SILIS group is internationally recognised as a leading group in the development and application of high power laser-driven particle accelerators, including both electron acceleration driven by plasma waves and ion acceleration driven by strong electric fields in dense plasma. The group also has active programmes of research on the development of plasma-based amplification schemes and in short-pulse radiation sources, including betatron radiation and strong field-based gamma ray sources. Other internationally recognised research programmes include the generation and transport of high current beams of relativistic electrons in dense plasma (relevant to inertial fusion) and laser-driven nuclear physics. The group regularly publish in high impact journals including Nature, Nature Physics and Physical Review Letters.