2011
02/09/2011: Two CPP students win prizes for the best posters at 30th ICPIG
28/08/11-02/09/11: 30th International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases (ICPIG) held at Queen’s University Belfast
25/07/2011: New vacancies available
07/07/2011: Physics cracks tough biological problem
20/04/2011: Double grant success for CPP
07/04/2011: CPP student wins poster prize in IoP Annual Conference on Plasma Physics
08/03/2011: Two EPSRC Funded PhD Studentships are available
07/03/2011: CPP Article is a ‘Highlight of 2010’
28/01/2011: First annual Centre for Plasma Physics Research Meeting
19/01/2011: New PhD studentships for 2011 available
07/01/2011: PhD student wins poster prize
Two PhD students from CPP, Ms Elena Nedanovska and Mr Mujahid Zaka-ul-Islam, were awarded two out of four prizes for the best posters in a competition organised during the 30th International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases (28th August – 2nd September 2011), held at the Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The prize winners were chosen by the conference’s international scientific committee, for their posters entitled “Laser induced breakdown in He at 1atm: Thomson scattering vs. Emission spectroscopy as diagnostics” (E.Nedanovska) and “Mode transitions in an inductively coupled oxygen plasma system” (M.Zaka-ul-Islam).
Physicists from Queen’s University, Ulster University and The University of York organised this year’s 30th International Conference on Phenomena in Ionized Gases (ICPIG). Over 400 participants from 41 countries attended the ICPIG that was held at the Queen’s University Belfast. It covered a wide range of fundamental and applied aspects of ionized gases and emphasised interdisciplinary research and fostered exchange between different communities.
The abstracts of the conference proceedings can be accessed here.
New vacancies are available for a Temporary Lecturer in Plasma Physics and up to 10 PhD studentships for a prestigious 4-year postgraduate training programme.
Follow this link for details.
Left: radiation track structure near a gold nanoparticle, showing high levels of energy concentration. Right: Comparison of the model to measurements.
QUB physicists have explained the anomalously large biological effects observed when gold nanoparticles are used to boost radiation dose in a recent article in Nature's new open access journal, Scientific Reports. The new model, involving no adjustable parameters, provides a major step forward in using gold nanoparticles in the clinic.
McMahon, S.J. et al. Biological consequences of nanoscale energy deposition near irradiated heavy atom nanoparticles. Sci. Rep. 1, 18; DOI:10.1038/srep00018 (2011).
Above left and right: The TARANIS laser is a £2M facility capable of delivering two intense laser pulses to either of two separate experimental areas.
The Centre for Plasma Physics has won two grants from EPSRC in February 2011, worth a total of £2.1M.
The first of these is a platform grant led by Prof. CLS Lewis with Profs. Marco Borghesi, Dave Riley, Matt Zepf and Drs Brendan Dromey and Michael Geissler as co-investigators. The grant of £1.4M will underpin high intensity laser-plasma research on the TARANIS laser for 4 years.
The second grant, led by Prof. Riley with the same group of colleagues as co-investigators is for £0.7M and is a responsive mode grant to support work on XUV interaction with warm dense matter.
Sharmin Sultana during the poster Presentation.
Mrs Sharmin Sultana was awarded the best poster prize in a competition organised during the 38th IoP Annual Conference on Plasma Physics (4 -7 April 2011), held at the Marine Hotel, North Berwick, Scotland.
The Prize was offered by Institute of Physics (IoP) UK, for her poster entitled " Electrostatic shocks in the presence of accelerated (super-thermal) electrons“, a joint work with Dr Gianluca Sarri, supervised by Dr Ioannis Kourakis at CPP.
Two new projects are available in the Centre for Plasma Physics at Queen’s University Belfast, funded by the EPSRC.
PROJECT A) XUV interaction with Warm Dense Matter
PROJECT B) High harmonic generation from Relativistically Oscillating Plasmas
Follow this LINK for more informations.
A research article from the ‘Ultrafast Belfast’ research group in CPP has been chosen as one of the Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 'Highlights of 2010'.
By coupling intense laser pulses to ultrafast nuclear motion, the fate of an electron can be controlled during molecular dissociation.
Participants of the CPP Research Meeting
The meeting was an opportunity for all CPP members to be updated on research activities and highlights right across the Centre. It also allowed everyone to participate in discussions of future research strategy, opportunities and initiatives.
The meeting started in 9.30am and ended about 6pm with a reception.
The main topics covered were:
- Taranis-based research
- Low temperature plasma physics
- Atomic and molecular physics
- Facilities-based research
- Life Science Interface
- Future Funding Scenarios
Martin Duffy
PhD student Martin Duffy, supervised by Dr Jason Greenwood, was awarded first place for his poster at the Spectroscopy Dynamics Group meeting at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, for work carried out using theKEIRA ion trap mass spectrometer.
More information on this research: www.ultrafastbelfast.co.uk