The CLF Annual Report 2022-23 provides a snapshot of some of the scientific and technical research that has been carried out by users of the CLF and its staff over the financial year 2022-23. Hard copies are available on request: please contact us if you wish to receive a printed version of this CLF Annual Report or to ask to be added to our Mailing List for future Reports.
Where available, associated full articles are available to download or view below. All PDF documents open in a new tab.
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Foreword (PDF – 711 KB)
Overview (PDF – 845 KB)
Industry engagement and innovation (PDF – 448 KB)
Communication and outreach activities within the CLF (PDF – 2,855 KB)
The main part of this annual report contains a selection of abstracts that offer an insight into some of the scientific and technical research that has been carried out by users of the CLF and its staff this year. The layout of the report has been designed to improve accessibility, and uses a larger font size than in previous years. Consequently, we cannot include the details of institutes with the author names on these abstracts, but there is a full Author Index that includes these details. Where possible, we also provide links to published papers in the list below, and these papers will contain author institute details.
High Energy Density & High Intensity Physics (synopsis of each article) (PDF – 891 KB)
1. Cellular irradiations with laser-driven carbon ions at ultra-high dose rates (Link to published paper)
2. Gas target characterisation at OPAL (02 - Feder_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 276 KB)
3. Gas target design and characterisation for EPAC EA1 (03 - Finlay1_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 642 KB)
4. Automated control and optimization of laser-driven ion acceleration (Link to published paper)
5. Development of a laser driven electron source for radiobiological applications (05 - McAnespie_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 713 KB)
6. Characterisation of an all-optical inverse Compton scattering source for industrial imaging 06 - McAnespie2_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 380 KB)
7. Versatile tape-drive for high-repetition-rate laser-driven proton acceleration (Link to published paper)
8. Characterization of laser wakefield acceleration efficiency with octave panning near-IR spectrum measurements (Link to published paper)
9. Laser wakefield accelerator modelling with variational neural networks (Link to published paper)
10. The role of transient plasma photonics structures in plasma-based amplifiers (Link to published paper)
11. Laboratory study of the Biermann battery magnetic field compression in laser-produced plasma (11 - Fuchs_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 542 KB)
12. High dose delivery in radiobiology experiments employing laser-driven protons (12 - Martin_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 202 KB)
Laser Science & Development (synopsis of each article) (PDF – 1,678 KB)
13. Generation of joule-level green bursts of nanosecond pulses from a PDSSL amplifier (Link to published paper)
14. Modelling of thermally-induced stress birefringence in a 10 J, 100 Hz diode-pumped Yb:YAG laser (Abstract only available 14 - Quinn abstract_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 115 KB)
15. Damage resilience testing of broadband thin-film coating for use in a high-energy Ti:Sa amplifier system (15 - Wojtusiak_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 776 KB)
16. High-integrity laser safety shutters for personnel interlocks (16 - Bickerton_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 385 KB)
17. Laser diagnostic design for the EPAC EA1 beamline (17 - Dzelzainis_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 648 KB)
18. Bayesian optimisation guided PIC simulations for EPAC (18 - Finlay2_CLF AR-22-23.pdf – 272 KB)
19. Vibration survey and analysis on EPAC support structures for stability (19 - Pan_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 249 KB)
20. High-repetition-rate LWFA system in Gemini Target Area 2 (20 - Fedorov_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 1,629 KB)
21. Software developments in Gemini (21 - Marshall_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 146 KB)
22. Gemini timing drift stabilisation (22 - Parsons_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 245 KB)
23. Commissioning progress of the new petawatt beamline in Vulcan (23 - Buck_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 254 KB)
24. Single shot autocorrelator for the emPULS laser system (24 - Galimberti_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 294 KB)
25. Reduction of electrical noise on diode trace measurements via a pulse replicator (25 - Oliveira 1_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 305 KB)
26. Characterisation of nested anti-resonant hollow core fibre for ultrafast synchronisation applications (26 - Oliveira 2_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 435 KB)
27. A versatile high-average-power ultrafast infrared driver tailored for high-harmonic generation and vibrational spectroscopy (Link to published paper)
28. Generation and characterisation of <10 fs pulses for ultrafast spectroscopy in Ultra (28 - Avni_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 334 KB)
29. Half-broadband two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy with active noise reduction (Link to published paper)
30. Complex micro-target fabrication to study shock compression (30 - Ariyathilaka_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 117 KB)
31. Liquid targetry development for high repetition rate experiments (31 - Crestani_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 166 KB)
32. Using additive manufacturing to aid the manufacture of complex 3D microtargets (32 - Dobson_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 144 KB)
33. Current developments in the Target Array Assembly System (33 - Fields1_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 274 KB)
34. Investigating sources of inaccuracy within the Target Array Assembly System (34 - Fields2_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 173 KB)
35. Embedding of ruby microspheres in low density foam targets (35 - Irving_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 113 KB)
Plasma Diagnostics (synopsis of each article) (PDF – 97 KB)
36. An active multi-channel ion beam profiler for laser-driven ion beams (36 - Ahmed_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 286 KB)
Imaging & Dynamics for Physical & Life Science (synopsis of each article) (PDF – 1,672 KB)
37. Exploring the charge density wave phase of 1T-TaSe2: Mott or charge-transfer gap? (Link to published paper)
38. Ultrafast Rydberg-Valence interactions and photodissociation dynamics of trimethylamine: a time-resolved XUV photoelectron spectroscopy experiment (38 - Minns_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 259 KB)
39. Access to the full three-dimensional Brillouin zone with time resolution, using a new tool for pump-probe photoemission spectroscopy (Link to published paper)
40. The guidance and adhesion protein FLRT2 dimerizes in cis via dual small-X3-small transmembrane motifs (Link to published paper)
41. Instantaneous 4D micro-particle image velocimetry (µPIV) via multifocal microscopy (MUM) (Link to published paper)
42. Ultraviolet refractive index values of organic aerosol extracted from deciduous forestry, urban and marine environments (Link to published paper)
43. FRET-FLIM to determine protein interactions and membrane topology of enzyme complexes (Link to published paper)
44. High-yield vesicle-packaged recombinant protein production from E. coli (Link to published paper)
45. Microsphere-supported gold nanoparticles for SERS detection of malachite green (Link to published paper)
46. From chemotherapy to phototherapy – changing the therapeutic action of a metallo-intercalating RuII-RuI luminescent system by switching its sub-cellular location (Link to published paper)
47. Binding partners regulate unfolding of myosin VI to activate the molecular motor (Link to published paper)
48. Structure and activity of particulate methane monooxygenase arrays in methanotrophs (Link to published paper)
49. Kerr-gated Raman investigations to understand LDPE decomposition by zeolites (Abstract only available – 49 - Campbell abstract_CLF AR 22-23.pdf 115 KB)
50. Time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy of a water splitting photocatalyst (50 - Cowan_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 218 KB)
51. Laser induced temperature-jump time resolved IR spectroscopy of zeolites (Link to published paper)
52. Ultrafast 2D-IR spectroscopy of intensely optically scattering pelleted solid catalysts (Link to published paper)
53. Spectrophotometric concentration analysis without molar absorption coefficients by two-dimensional-infrared and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (Link to published paper)
54. Surface enhanced Raman scattering with a Kerr-gate for fluorescence suppression (Link to published paper)
55. Optical screening and classification of drug binding to proteins in human blood serum (Link to published paper)
56. Coumarin C-H functionalization by Mn(I) carbonyls: Mechanistic insight by ultra-fast IR spectroscopic analysis (Link to published paper)
57. Photochemical dynamics of organic photocatalysts showing reverse intersystem crossing and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (57 - Orr-Ewing_CLF AR 22-23.pdf – 132 KB)
58. Good vibrations report on the DNA quadruplex binding of an excited state amplified ruthenium polypyridyl IR probe (Link to published paper)
59. G-Quadruplex binding of an NIR emitting osmium polypyridyl probe revealed by solution NMR and time-resolved infrared studies (Link to published paper)
60. A stronger acceptor decreases the rates of charge transfer: ultrafast dynamics and on/off switching of charge separation in organometallic donor–bridge–acceptor systems (Link to published paper)
Operational statistics (PDF – 689 KB)
Publications and theses (PDF – 186 KB)
Panel membership (PDF – 99 KB)
CLF structure (PDF – 122 KB)
Contributing author index (PDF – 297 KB) - please note that the links are only active in the full report, available here
