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discovered_01_2016

WWW.HZDR.DE discovered 01.16 TITLE travel though a pipe into the chamber and are directed to the "target". "That’s that little cylinder over there. It’s only three millimeters long," the physicist explains. It has helium flowing through it at supersonic speed." The bundled laser pulses hit the gas atoms and immediately ionize them into a plasma. "In this plasma, the laser pulse drags a strong electric field along with it like a bow wave," Arie Irman explains. "Moving at near-light speed, this bow wave can capture electrons and significantly accelerate them." Using this method, researchers have already accelerated particles to energies of 300 MeV – over a distance of just three millimeters. "Now we want to understand this process better and optimize it," says the physicist. In particular, it is not yet easy to achieve a stable, reliable electron beam – the prerequisite for later applications. One of the questions to be addressed is how the laser’s bow wave can be made to drag along as many electrons as possible. One option would be to inject additional particles into the electrons already existing in the plasma. For this purpose, the experts could utilize the electron beam in the UPGRADE: In this target chamber the diameter of the beam has already reached 20 centimeters with a power of nearly a petawatt. Junior research group leader Karl Zeil adjusts one of the parabolic mirrors. Photo: Oliver Killig Next Laser Generation Since the spring of 2015, Karl Zeil and Arie Irman have each been heading a junior research group at HZDR. They belong to that body of highly-qualified junior researchers who are given the opportunity by the Center to take responsibility for their own group of doctoral candidates and students. Although a junior research group usually has a fixed-term of five years, it is quite likely that this will lead to long-term positions at HZDR. "Good prospects for the long run," Zeil enthuses. "A position as a junior research group leader is a good start to a career in research." Currently, there are four junior research groups in Rossendorf. After three years, and again after five years, they are evaluated by a commission composed of HZDR scientists. Together with one DFG-funded Emmy Noether group and three Helmholtz young investigators groups, eight groups thus offer excellent young scientists a firm foundation for a long and successful career in research.

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