Title of Research Group: Laser Plasma Group

Principal Investigator: Prof John Costello, Prof Eugene Kennedy, Dr. Lampros Nikolopolus Dr. Jean-Paul Mosnier, Dr. Paddy Hayden

Institution: Dublin City University

School: School of Physical Sciences / NCPST

Research: We use SR and FEL sources (mainly FEL) to elucidate the nature electron dynamics of small quantum systems under illumination by high energy, high intesnsity electromagnetic radiation. From a fundamental perspective, light sources such as FELs allow us to study well known phenomena such as the photoelectric effect in a completley new intensity and wavelength regime. We also apply well known techniques in this unexplored photon regime to help characterise the temporal and phase characteristics of these light sources. We use SR sources to study absorption in ions which compliments our photoabsorption work in Dublin.

Techniques: Electron Spectroscopy, Velocity Map Imaging, Ion Spectroscopy, Pump probe spectrometrey

Facilities: LCLS, FLASH, FERMI, SOLEIL, BESSY

Beamlines: BL1, PG2, AMO, WDM …

Group (as of 2014): 9 Ph.D and 3 PD’s

Participating group members at SR/FEL/neutron facilities (period 2008-2014):
6 Ph.D and 4 PD

Ph. D’s: Padraig Hough,Vincent Richardson,John Dardis,Mossy Kelly,Nicky Walsh,Caroline Banahan
P.D’s: Paddy Hayden,Hugo De Luna, Jofre Pedregossa, Pat Yeates

Impact: This work adds insurmountable value to the experience gained by PhD students during their tenure in the group. This results in highly skilled, highly trained doctorates with experience at the highest levels of the international physics community. These students then go on to make significant impact in whatever career they choose post doctorate. The work also results in the publication of high impact papers (seem below ). The collaborations and relationships developed during these experiments lead directly to successful proposals to EU funding (see: http://www.extatic.eu )

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Publication Highlights:

  1. Determining the polarization state of an extreme ultraviolet free-electron laserbeam using atomic circular dichroism
    T Mazza, M Ilchen, A J Rapoor, C Callegari, P Finetti, O Plekan, K C Prince, RRichter, M Danailov, A Demidovich, G De Ninno, C Grazioli, R Ivanov, N Mahne,L Raimondi, C Svetina, L Avaldi, P Bolognesi, M Coreno, P O’Keeffe, M Di Fraia,M Devetta, Y Ovcharenko, Th Moller, V Lyamayev, F Stienkemeier, S Duesterer, K Ueda, J T Costello, A K Kazansky, N M Kabachnik and M Meyer, Nature Communications 5, 3628 (2014)
  2. Ultrafast X-ray pulse temporal characterization for free-electron lasers
    I Grguras, A R Maier, C Behrens, T Mazza, T J Kelly, P Radcliffe, S Duesterer, A K Kazansky, N M Kabachnik, Th Tschentscher, J T Costello, M Meyer, M C Hoffmann1, H Schlarb and A L Cavalieri, Nature Photonics 6 852-857 (2012)
  3. Controlling core hole relaxation dynamics via intense optical fields,
    T Mazza, K G Papamihail, P Radcliffe, W B Li, T J Kelly, J T Costello, S Duesterer, P Lambropoulos and M Meyer, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 45 141001 (2012)
  4. Angle-resolved electron spectroscopy of laser-assisted Auger decay induced by a few-femtosecond x-ray pulse
    M Meyer, P Radcliffe, T Tschentscher, J T Costello, A Cavalieri, I Grguras, A R Maier, R Kienberger, J Bozek, C Bostedt, S Schorb, R Coffee, M Messerschmidt, C Roedig, E Sistrunk, L F Di Mauro, G Doumy, K Ueda, S Wada, S Duesterer, A K Kazansky and N M Kabachnik, Phys. Rev. Letts. 108 063007 (2012)
  5. Atomic photoionization in combined intense XUV free-electron and infrared laser fields
    P Radcliffe, M Arbeiter, W B Li, S Duesterer, H Redlin, P Hayden, P Hough, V Richardson, J T Costello, T Fennel and M Meyer, New J. Phys. 14 043008 (2012)
  6. Dichroism in the above-threshold two-colour photoionization of singly charged neon
    V Richardson, W B Li, T J Kelly, J T Costello, L A A Nikolopoulos, S Duesterer, D Cubaynes and M Meyer, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 45 085601 (2012)

Website: www.physics.dcu.ie/~jtc