Nicholas Stuart Email & Phone Number

Science And Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxfordshire

Joined the Extreme Photonics and Applications Centre (EPAC) Project to support development of a new high-energy, high repetition-rate short-pulse laser facility. My work involves leading the design and build of the multi-terawatt 'front end' laser section; ensuring energy, bandwidth, compressibility, pulse contrast, wavefront and stability specifications can be met to achieve final petawatt peak power of laser pulses in the experimental areas for university and industry research and applications.My work also involves leading the commissioning of the EPAC compressor and large optic beam transport to experimental areas. These areas use large optics mounted in an ultra clean vacuum environment that require very precise motion and high stability from vibrations. There are many optic and engineering challenges associated with this as well as scientific delivery of the ultrashort lasers pulses planned to be delivered to experimental areas.

High-Power, Short-Pulse, Mid-Infrared Laser Technology DevelopmentDevelopment of a terawatt mid-infrared (3.8μm) OPCPA sub-100fs short-pulse laser system for wavelength-scaling investigations of high-power lasers and laser-matter interactions, particularly tailored towards laser wakefield acceleration of electrons and the drastically larger bubble sizes expected from using longer wavelength drive beams. - Stretcher and compressor designs for pump lasers and short-pulse systems with fine dispersion control in mind. - Extensive nonlinear optics design, numerical modelling, optics build, characterisation and control for high-stability and robust performance. Generation of the first 10nJ of mid-infrared light requires five nonlinear steps, achieving a 5% RMS seed that is then amplified in three OPA stages to reach 2% RMS at output.

Cerberus Laser System, Laser Consortium, Qols

Commissioning and ongoing development of a high-contrast OPCPA frontend for multi-Terawatt interactions. This is based on an Nd:YLF pump laser seeded by a high-contrast Nd:Glass ultrafast oscillator. The front-end currently outputs 20mJ pulses compressible to 500fs that seeds an Nd:Glass power amplifier chain. Most of my work and responsibilities involve the laser physics side of the experiment, from the low energy oscillator all the way up the the final focusing optic and providing support for target operations and diagnostics. Our largest amplifiers currently are able to produce 25J of infrared light, which will eventually be used to create a ~20TW beamline. This will allow studies into the relativistic regime, where electrons have kinetic energies approaching the speed of light.Also: Postgraduate Student Representative (QOLS) 2012 - Present

Rutherford Appleton Laboratories, Uk

Daily operation of the Vulcan Laser amplification areas and control of the generation high-power laser pulses and alignment beams for the Vulcan Target Areas. Project: Developed software and the optical setup of an alignment and energy diagnostic for the Nd:Glass rod amplifiers.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Physics

Development of Amplification Techniques and Diagnostics for High-Contrast, Multi-Terawatt OPCPA Laser Systems. - Experiment and modelling.

Mres Photonics, Physics, Distinction

Modules: Imaging, Lasers, Optical Communications, Optical Measurement & Devices Literature Review: Physics of Petawatt Lasers Project.

Bachelor Of Science, Physics With Industrial Experience, 2:1 Honours