Lasers are playing an increasingly important role in accelerator physics from laser plasma accelerators and photo injectors to diagnostic tools like laserwire and beam polarisation measurements. Our research, as part of the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science at the University of Oxford, focuses on laser development for the these applications primarily using fibre lasers. These have excellent spatial quality, efficiency, thermal management and pointing jitter compared with larger conventional solid state systems.

One of our current research areas is the development of a laserwire diagnostic to measure the transverse size and therefore the emittance of an electron beam at micron-level resolution at the ATF2 in Japan with members of the JAI at Royal Holloway University of London.

Fibre laser research in a dedicated laser lab in Oxford is using photonic crystal fibres to achieve the 50 megawatt pulses necessary for a laserwire diagnostic able to operate at megahertz repetition rates. Pulses with a peak power of as high as 70MW have been successfully demonstrated with excellent spatial quality and no active cooling of the fibre.

We are also in collaboration with both Simon Hooker's Laser Wakefield Plasma Acceleration (LWPA) group in Oxford investigating plasma excitation with a train of resonant laser pulses for use in LWPA and Stuart Mangle's Plasma Physics group at Imperial College London.