Plasma Physics and Accelerator Physics
	Prof. James Rosenzweig Advanced Accelerators and Beam Physics
	The Neptune laboratory at UCLA is dedicated to cutting edge research into ultra-fast (<1E-12 seconds) phenomena, with application to acceleration of charged particles in extremely electromagnetic large fields. These new acceleration schemes, which are increasingly based on high intensity lasers, electron beams and plasmas, are needed to allow the frontier of high energy physics discovery to be pushed to the TeV level and beyond. The REU project envisioned is the design of, and initial measurements towards, the next generation inverse-free electron laser acceleration experiment. For more information on our program, please see the PBPL web site at http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/.
	Prof. Christoph Niemann Characterization of Charged Particles Created by Intense Laser-Plasma Interactions
	When a powerful laser beam is focused onto a gaseous or solid target copious amounts of energetic electrons are produced. These electrons are a problem for laser fusion because the can preheat the fusion target and reduce compressibility. We will perform experiments at UCLA to measure for the first time the distribution of the electrons, temporally, spectrally and spatially resolved. The student would develop and build an electrostatic electron spectrometer and perform laser-target experiments to measure the electron distribution for different plasma and beam conditions. He/she would learn how to align and operate a high power laser, use several electron, xray and laser- beam diagnostics and would perform experiments that are directly relevant to the progress of laser fuison.
	Prof. Christoph Niemann Experiments on Laser Driven Shocks in the LAPD
	We perform experiments where a high power laser beam is focused onto a thin foil inside a large magnetized plasma (18 m long, 1 m diameter). When the laser created plasma-plume expands rapidly into the ambient plasma a collisionless shock is formed that can simulate the expansion of a supernova remnant into the interstellar space. We are planning to develop a new pulse stretcher that will boost the laser energy from currently 20 J to above 100 J. It is expected that this increase in energy will lead to much higher expansion velocities (several 100 km/s) and stronger shocks. The student would design and commission the pulse stretcher, and perform laser-target experiments in a small test chamber in this new laser configuration to characterize the laser blow-off with a fast gated CCD camera and magnetic probes. By the end of the REU program he/she would be participating in an experiment at the LAPD that could be the first ever to drive collisionless shocks.
	Prof. Troy Carter Measurements of Fluctuations in High-temperature Tokamak Plasmas Using Microwave Diagnostics
	Transport in tokamak fusion reactors is dominated by turbulence driven by gradients in plasma properties such as temperature and density. We are studying turbulence in the DIII-D tokamak (located at General Atomics in San Diego) using non- perturbative microwave diagnostics. The student would participate in the design, construction and calibration of a microwave receiver which will be used in a correlation electron cyclotron emission radiometer for measuring fluctuations in electron temperature. The work will primarily occur at UCLA, but visits to DIII-D to install equipment or participate in experiments are possible.