Professor Paul McKenna

Head Of Department

Physics

Personal statement

Paul McKenna's research interests focus on high power laser-plasma interactions. His present research topics include: laser-driven ion acceleration; fast electron generation and transport in dense plasma, and application to the development of advanced schemes for inertial fusion energy; high field physics at the focus of ultra-intense laser pulses; plasma optics; and, laser-driven nuclear physics.

He is an EPSRC Leadership fellow since 2012 and a Professor of Laser-Plasma Physics at the University of Strathclyde since 2011. He received his PhD at Queens University Belfast in 2000, before becoming a postdoctoral fellow at the university of Glasgow from 2000-2002. From 2002-2005, he held a Royal Society of Edinburgh Personal Research Fellowship at the University of Strathclyde, and was appointed to a Lectureship at the university in 2006, and a Readership in 2008.

Publications

High order mode structure of intense light fields generated via a laser-driven relativistic plasma aperture: Duff M J, Wilson R, King M, Gonzalez-Izquierdo B, Higginson A, Williamson S D R, Davidson Z E, Capdessus R, Booth N, Hawkes S, Neely D, Gray R J, McKenna P; Scientific Reports Vol 10 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57119-x
Single cycle terawatt twisted light pulses at midinfrared wavelengths above 10μm: Zhu Xing-Long, Chen Min, Weng Su-Ming, McKenna Paul, Sheng Zheng-Ming, Zhang Jie; Physical Review Applied Vol 12 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.12.054024
Collimation of high current fast electrons in dense plasmas with a tightly focused precursor intense laser pulse: Xu H, Yang XH, Sheng ZM, McKenna P, Ma YY, Zhou HB, Yin Y, Ren C, Zhang J; Nuclear Fusion Vol 59 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab45a2
A new energy spectrum reconstruction method for time-of-flight diagnostics of high-energy laser-driven protons: Milluzzo G, Scuderi V, Alejo A, Amico A G, Booth N, Borghesi M, Cirrone G A P, Cuttone G, Doria D, Green J, Kar S, Korn G, Larosa G, Leanza R, Margarone D, Martin P, McKenna P, Petringa G, Pipek J, Romagnani L, Romano F, Russo A, Schillaci F; Review of Scientific Instruments Vol 90 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5082746
Control of laser light by a plasma immersed in a tunable strong magnetic field: Zheng Xiaolong, Weng Suming, Ma Hanghang, Wang Yuanxiang, Chen Min, McKenna Paul, Sheng Zhengming; Optics Express Vol 27, pp. 23529-23538 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.023529
Effect of rear surface fields on hot, refluxing and escaping electron populations via numerical simulations: Rusby D R, Armstrong C D, Scott G G, King M, McKenna P, Neely D; High Power Laser Science and Engineering Vol 7 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2019.34

more publications

Professional activities

Program Committee meeting for the 47th European Physical Society Plasma Physics conference: Participant; 5/12/2019
Invited Talk at the First ELI-NP Users Conference: Speaker; 7/11/2019
PI on Gemini experiment on relativistic transparency in ultrathin foils: Recipient; 4/11/2019
Talk at the XFEL Workshop on Matter at Extreme Conditions: Speaker; 2/10/2019
Invited Talk at 1st Nature Conference on Plasma Physics - Advances and Applications in Plasma Physics: Participant; 17/9/2019
External examiner for PhD thesis at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai: Examiner; 1/9/2019

more professional activities

Projects

PANAMA: Plasma Accelerators for Nuclear Applications and Materials Analysis (panama) - National Nuclear User Facility Phase 2: Renshaw, Joanna (Principal Investigator) Jaroszynski, Dino (Co-investigator) Lunn, Rebecca (Co-investigator) McKenna, Paul (Co-investigator) Bots, Pieter (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2019 - 30-Jan-2023
Doctoral Training Partnership 2018-19 University of Strathclyde | Dolier, Ewan: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Dolier, Ewan (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2019 - 01-Jan-2023
Doctoral Training Partnership 2018-19 University of Strathclyde | Goodman, Jack: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Goodman, Jack (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2019 - 01-Jan-2023
Doctoral Training Partnership 2018-19 University of Strathclyde | Lofrese, Antonio: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Lofrese, Antonio (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2019 - 01-Jan-2022
Advanced laser-plasma optics technology | Lofrese, Antonio: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Lofrese, Antonio (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2019 - 01-Jan-2022
Advanced laser-plasma optics technology: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator); 01-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2022

more projects

Address

Physics
John Anderson Building

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