Bifeng Lei

Name  Bifeng Lei
 Research Associate
 Address  

Cockcroft Institute
Sci -Tech Daresbury
University of Liverpool
Warrington WA4 4AD
UK
  Phone +44 07586004125 
  Email  bifeng.lei@liverpool.ac.uk 

 

 

Background

Dr Bifeng Lei studied Mathematics (B.Sc.) at Beihang University (BUAA), China and Computer Science (M.Sc.) for Large-scale Particle Accelerators at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). He then worked as a scientific researcher at PITZ/DESY and Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUD), Germany, contributing to beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Since 2013, he started his Ph.D. research in high-intensity laser-plasma physics and its applications in particle acceleration and radiation generation at the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) in Jena, Germany.

After receiving his PhD, Dr Bifeng Lei joined the Helmholtz Institute in Jena as a postdoctoral researcher. His research mainly focused on laser-plasma based electron and ion acceleration and radiation generation. He developed the new method for generating ultra-intense optical vortex beam or ultra-strong magnetic field and position acceleration. By proposing a new way of highly sufficient ion trapping in near-critical relativistically transparent (NCRT) plasma, his work has opened a new routine to push the energy limit of laser-driven ion acceleration. He has also contributed to the investigation of electron beam instability in laser plasma wakefield accelerators (LWFA), which will benefit the most demanding applications of LWFA.

From 2022 to 2023, Dr Bifeng Lei started working as a postdoctoral fellow at Peking University in Beijing, China. His research focused on laser-driven particle acceleration, surface high harmonic generation and quantum electrodynamics. He worked as Principal Investigator on the project of petawatt laser-driven compact radiation source.

Dr Bifeng Lei joined the Quasar Group as a Postdoc Research Associate on 1st January 2024. He focuses on the development and optimisation of ultra-compact high gradient accelerators, including ultra-compact dielectric laser accelerators and novel carbon nanotube (CNT)-based structures. He is recently proposing the solid crystal and nanomaterials-based ultra-high gradient plasma wakefield for TeV-level particle acceleration. In close collaboration with partners around the world, his mission is to drive the scientific progress in ultra-compact particle accelerators.

 

Research

Ultra-compact high-gradient particle accelerators, relativistic surface plasmon, compact radiation generation

 

Reference:

[1] B. Lei, et al. Shot-to-shot electron beam pointing instability in a nonlinear plasma bubble, Phys. Rev. E 109, 015204 (2024)

[2] B. Liu et. al. Accelerating Ions by Crossing Two Ultraintense Lasers in a Near-Critical Relativistically Transparent Plasma, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 274801(2023)

[3] B Lei, et al. γ -Ray Generation from Plasma Wakefield Resonant Wiggler Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 134801 (2018)

[4] B. Lei, et al. Flexible x-ray source with tunable polarization and orbital angular momentum from Hermite-Gaussian laser modes driven plasma channel wakefield, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 22 071302 (2019)

[5] B Lei, et. al. Relativistic modified Bessel-Gaussian beam generated from plasma-based beam braiding, Phys. Rev. A 104 L021501 (2021)

[6] A. Seidel, et. al. Polarization and CEP dependence of the transverse phase space in laser driven accelerators, Phys. Rev. Research 6, 013056 (2024)

[7] J. Wang, et al. Exploring the quantum vacuum via ultraintense laser-induced refraction of light, New J. Phys. 26 023008 (2024)

[8] G. Chen, et al Detection of frequency signal induced by quantum vacuum with optical frequency comb, Commun. Theor. Phys. 77 085504 (2025)

 

Selection of published papers:

[1] Pablo Martín-Luna, Alexandre Bonatto, Cristian Bontoiu, Bifeng Lei, Guoxing Xia, Javier Resta-López, Plasmonic excitations in graphene layers, j.cjph.2025.03.030

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjph.2025.03.030

[2] Bin Liu, Bifeng Lei, Ying Gao, Meng Wen and Kun Zhu, Plasma opacity induced by laser-driven  movement of background ions, Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 66 (2024) 115004

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/ad797f

 

Talks:

[1] ‘Carbon nanotubes-based ultra compact particle accelerators’, 2nd nanoAc workshop, University of Valencia, Spain, 17, September (B. Lei)

[2] “Solid Plasma-based Wakefield Accelerators: Towards to TeV-PeV plasma acceleration”, EuPRAXIA Camp I: Technologies, 8st Apirl.2025, PISA, Italy.