LPS Colloquium: Michael Downer (UT Austin)
Small accelerators for big 21st century science
Tabletop lepton accelerators in which particles surf on light-speed plasma waves driven by powerful laser pulses have accelerated electron and positron bunches to ~10 GeV, driven XUV free-electron lasers, and produced femtosecond X-ray pulses for many research and clinical applications. Their particle energy frontier is poised to reach tens of GeV, equivalent to SLAC, within the coming decade. I will review the physics, history, and state-of-the-art of these laser-plasma accelerators. I will then discuss current research in diagnostic and control strategies4 that will be vital for making them widely useful to science and society.
Bio:
Mike Downer is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He researches femtosecond spectroscopy in condensed matter and plasmas, semiconductor interface physics, surface nonlinear optics and atomic, molecular and plasma physics at high light intensity, with plasma-based particle accelerators. A Fellow in the Optical Society of America and the American Physical Society, Prof. Downer earned his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1983.
