LPS Colloquium: Howard Milchberg (Maryland)
Relativistic optics and multi-GeV laser-driven particle accelerators
During the past 30-plus years, the remarkable increase in peak laser intensity – greater than six orders of magnitude – has spurred new and exciting advances in laser-driven sources of relativistic charged particles and light, along with the new field of indestructible plasma optics. I will discuss our recent results demonstrating acceleration of electrons up to 10 GeV in just 30 cm – a distance 5,000 times smaller than required using conventional technology and then highlight the physics building blocks that made such a result possible.
Student Q&A: 2:15‑3:00 p.m. • Reception: 3:45-4:15 p.m.
Bio:
Howard Milchberg is jointly appointed to the departments of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering and is affiliated with the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics at the University of Maryland. He received his B.Eng. in engineering physics from McMaster University and a Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University. Professor Milchberg is the recipient of an NSERC Postgraduate Fellowship, National Research Council of Canada; NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award; and both the APS John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and its Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America. He is a UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and Distinguished University Professor and was awarded the Senior Faculty Outstanding Research Award in UMD’s Clark School of Engineering. Three of his graduate students have been recipients of APS-DPP’s Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award.
