Aaron McNamee (He/Him)

 

Current research project

Proton-Boron Fusion Studies in Laser-Generated Plasma for Future Ultraclean Energy Production

Proton-Boron Fusion is part of a class of fusion reactions that produce very little if any neutrons. They are known as aneutronic reactions and due to this property, the energy that they produce causes very little relative radiation emission and the generation of radioactive products. So, coupled with the ability to generate electricity directly from the reaction, thus makes them very appropriate for the production of Ultraclean efficient energy. However due to the increased temperature and plasma confinement necessary to breakeven compared to other fusion reactions, magnetic confinement is not viable requiring the usage of inertial confinement. My research in particular will focus on the targetry and diagnostic problems in Proton-Boron fusion, such as detecting alpha particles in high energy reactions, with the aid of specialized computer software like Geant4.

Biography

Born in London, I moved to Northern Ireland at a young age. In 2021 I graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a upper second class Integrated Masters in Physics with Astrophysics. My Master's project was in solid state physics with investigating milling surfaces with an AFM tip, however I pivoted towards a PhD in plasma physics due to my interest and passion for the fusion sciences.

Research interests

• Laser generated fusion

• Indirect particle detectors

Pure page

https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/aaron-mcnamee