Study of extreme ultraviolet laser ablation for fusion applications

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My supervisors are Dr Erik Wagenaars and Prof Greg Tallents and my research is about understanding laser ablation from EUV to IR for indirect and direct drive ICF.Fusion reactions combine lighter atoms, such as hydrogen, together to form larger ones and release significant amounts of energy. Fusion energy aims to use such reactions for the production of renewable energy. Inertial Confinement Fusion is one of the approaches to achieve fusion energy and this project sits in this area. The main concept is to achieve fusion by heating and compressing a fuel target using high-power lasers. Laser ablation, i.e. a high-power laser interacts with a target, turning it into a plasma, is one of the key processes in Inertial Confinement Fusion. This project aims to study the fundamental physics behind laser ablation of solid materials, in particular focusing on the differences as a function of wavelength, from IR to EUV. It will involve both experimental as well as computational modelling investigations. Plasma diagnostics such as optical emission spectroscopy, time-resolved imaging, shadowgraphy and interferometry will be used the study the properties of the ablation process.