PhD Success!

Congratulations to Imperial College student Titus Dascalu who on 5 September 2023 successfully defended his thesis, titled "Study of non-neutral electron plasma lenses for focusing laser-driven ion beams".

The thesis explored the use of non-neutral electron plasma (Gabor) lenses for focusing proton and ion beams produced by laser-driven sources. The work combines particle-in-cell simulations of electron plasmas and a set of preliminary measurements of magnetically-confined electrons to better understand the challenges of producing a reliable plasma lens. A few models of the plasma lens were created to validate the use of the Gabor lenses for LhARA in particle-tracking simulations and to understand the limitations observed with the first prototype of the lens built at Imperial College. In the context of LhARA, the performance of the plasma lenses was also compared to that of more conventional normal-conducting solenoids.