Extreme optical attosecond pulses for driving ultraviolet, X-ray and electron sources

About the Project

Intense ultrafast laser pulses allow us to drive and probe matter at extremely short timescales. By driving matter with very high intensities it is possible to reach a strong field regime, which can be used to generate secondary sources of ultraviolet, X-rays, and electrons. Most current laser sources used to enter this regime have pulse durations of several femtoseconds at best, consisting of multiple laser cycles, and operate at infrared wavelengths. This limits the efficiency and pulse duration of the secondary sources, preventing the emission of attosecond X-ray and electron pulses. In this PhD project, you will make use of a new extreme light source recently constructed in the Laboratory of Ultrafast Physics and Optics (LUPO), at Heriot-Watt University, called XSOL. This source can generate sub-cycle, sub-femtosecond pulses—so-called optical attosecond pulses—in the visible-infrared spectral region, and few-femtosecond, few-cycle pulses in the deep and vacuum ultraviolet spectral region, both with sufficient intensity to drive strong-field physics. This light source opens up a new regime of light-matter interaction, and this PhD project will be one of the first to design and run experiments to exploit it.

The project. The PhD project will be part of the ERC Consolidator Grant project XSOL and within the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technology held by Prof. Travers. After training on the operation and maintenance of the XSOL beamline, you will work together with the wider XSOL team to design experiments that test its capabilities. Examples include attosecond relativistic electron generation and acceleration and attosecond X-ray generation. These will be very challenging experiments. 

The candidate. The successful candidate will join a diverse and motivated team of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working across a range of projects from fundamental science to industrially funded research. Candidates must have experience in experimental laboratory work and a strong grounding in the fundamentals of optics and lasers. The project will involve both heavy experimental laser work, including experimental and mechanical design. Our experiments are supported by our in-house written numerical modelling codes, so experience with programming for numerical simulations is desirable.

The group. The project will be based in the Laboratory of Ultrafast Physics and Optics (LUPO, https://lupo-lab.com) at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK) under the supervision of Prof. John Travers (https://lupo-lab.com/author/john-c.-travers/). Across three state-of-the-art ultrafast optics laboratories, the LUPO group develops and applies new laser light sources with extreme spectral and temporal properties, from compact deep-ultraviolet lasers for healthcare applications to high-power wavelength-tuneable laser pulses and extremely intense sub-cycle field transients for ultrafast science. We use a symbiotic mix of experimental work and advanced numerical simulations to push ultrafast nonlinear optics to the extreme. In close collaboration with leading research institutes and universities around the world, we use the light sources we develop to gain new insights into ultrafast dynamics in matter. The PhD project will include opportunities to join in these collaborations with other research laboratories, both in the UK and overseas.

How to apply. Interested candidates should contact Prof. John C. Travers (j.travers@hw.ac.uk) and arrange an informal call to discuss the project in more detail. Formal applications must be made through the Heriot-Watt on-line application system, https://www.hw.ac.uk/study/apply/uk/postgraduate.htm

Start date. The project will start in September or October 2025.