Professor Paul McKenna

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

Diagnosis of Weibel instability evolution in the rear surface scale lengths of laser solid interactions via proton acceleration: Scott G G, Brenner C M, Bagnoud V, Clarke R J, Gonzalez Izquierdo B, Green J S, Heathcote R I, Powell H W, Rusby D R, Zielbauer B , McKenna P , Neely D; New Journal of Physics Vol 19, (2017); http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aa652c
X-ray spectroscopy of super-intense laser-produced plasmas for the study of nonlinear processes. Comparison with PIC simulations: Dalimier E., Ya Faenov A., Oks E., Angelo P., Pikuz T. A., Fukuda Yuji, Andreev A, Koga J., Sakaki H., Kotaki H., Pirozhkov A., Hayashi Y., Skobelev I. Yu., Pikuz S. A., Kawachi T., Kando M., Kondo K., Zhidkov A, Tubman Eleanor, Butler N. M. H., Dance R. J., Alkhimova M. A. , Booth N., Green J., Gregory C, McKenna P,, Woolsey N, Kodama R.; Journal of Physics Conference Series Vol 810, (2017); http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/810/1/012004
Laser-plasma-based space radiation reproduction in the laboratory: Hidding B., Karger O., Königstein T., Pretzler G., Manahan G. G., McKenna P., Gray R., Wilson R., Wiggins S. M., Welsh G. H., Beaton A., Delinikolas P., Jaroszynski D. A., Rosenzweig J. B., Karmakar A., Ferlet-Cavrois V., Constantino A., Muschitiello M., Daly E.; Scientific Reports Vol 7, (2017); http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep42354
Using X-ray spectroscopy of relativistic laser plasma interaction to reveal parametric decay instabilities : a modeling tool for astrophysics: Oks E., Dalimier E., Faenov A. Ya, Angelo P., Pikuz S.A., Tubman E., Butler N.M.H., Dance R.J., Pikuz T.A., Skobelev I. Yu., Alkhimova M.A. , Booth N., Green J., Gregory C., Andreev A., Zhidkov A., Kodama R., McKenna P., Woolsey N.; Optics Express Vol 25, pp. 1958-1972, (2017); http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.001958
Intense terahertz radiation from relativistic laser–plasma interactions: Liao G Q, Li Y T, Li C, Liu H, Zhang Y H, Jiang W M, Yuan X H, Nilsen J, Ozaki T, Wang W M, Sheng Z M, Neely D, McKenna P., Zhang J; Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Vol 59, (2017); http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0741-3335/59/1/014039
Pulsed X-ray imaging of high-density objects using a ten picosecond high-intensity laser driver: Rusby D. R., Brenner C. M., Armstrong C., Wilson L. A., Clarke R., Alejo A., Ahmed H., Butler N. M. H., Haddock D., Higginson A., McClymont A., Mirfayzi S. R., Murphy C., Notley M., Oliver P., Allott R., Hernandez-Gomez C., Kar S., McKenna P., Neely D.; Proceedings of SPIE 7982, Smart Sensor Phenomena, Technology, Networks, and Systems 2011 Vol 9992, (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2241776

more publications

Professional activities

STFC - Central Laser Facility: Visiting researcher; 28/2/2016
CHILI-2016 Conference on High Intensity Lasers and attosecond science: Invited speaker; 22/2/2016
Invited talk at the 2nd International Symposium on High Power Laser Science and Engineering (HPLSE2016).: Invited speaker; 2016
Invited talk - 17th International Conference on Laser-Optics 2016: Invited speaker; 2016
Creativity at Home workshop: Speaker; 2016
Invited seminar (Plasma Physics Group) at GSI, Darmstadt: Invited speaker; 8/12/2015

more professional activities

Projects

Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Carnell, Katie: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Carnell, Katie (Research Co-investigator); Period 01-Oct-2016 - 01-Oct-2019
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Davidson, Zoe: Gray, Ross (Principal Investigator) McKenna, Paul (Co-investigator) Davidson, Zoe (Research Co-investigator); Period 01-Oct-2016 - 01-Apr-2020
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP 2016-2017 University of Strathclyde) | Jarrett, Jonathan: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Jarrett, Jonathan (Research Co-investigator); Period 01-Oct-2016 - 01-Apr-2020
Industrial Case Account 2015 | Zemaityte, Egle: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator) Gray, Ross (Co-investigator) Zemaityte, Egle (Research Co-investigator); Period 01-Oct-2015 - 01-Oct-2019
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP - University of Strathclyde) | Wilson, Thomas: Sheng, Zheng-Ming (Principal Investigator) McKenna, Paul (Co-investigator) Wilson, Thomas (Research Co-investigator); Period 01-Oct-2015 - 01-Apr-2019
iCASE studentship with DSTL: McKenna, Paul (Principal Investigator); Period 01-Oct-2015 - 30-Sep-2019

more projects

Address

Physics
John Anderson Building

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