Karl Krushelnick

Karl Krushelnick received a B.Sc. in physics from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada in 1987. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in Astrophysical Sciences in 1989 and 1994 respectively. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University until 1997 when he moved to Imperial College London as a lecturer in the Physics Department. In 2003 he was promoted to full Professor and Head of the Plasma Physics Group there. In 2006 Krushelnick moved to the University of Michigan where he is presently Director of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) and Director of the NSF funded ZEUS Multi-Petawatt laser facility. His research is concentrated on experimental ultra-high intensity laser plasma interactions using the high power short pulse laser facilities at CUOS. This includes the development of “table-top” relativistic electron beams along with the development of compact proton/ion beams and x-ray/gamma ray beams.

Professor Krushelnick is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Optica and the Institute of Physics.

Selected Publications

Polarization-Dependent Self-Injectoin by Above Threshold Ionizing Heating in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator, (Y. Ma, D. Seipt, A.E. Hussein, S. Hakimi, N.F. Beier, S.B. Hansen, J. Hinojosa, A. Maksimchuk, J. Nees, K. Krushelnick, A.G.R. Thomas, F. Dollar), Physical Review Letters 124, 114801 (2020).

Magnetic Signatures of Radiation-Driven Double Ablation Fronts (P.T. Campbell, C.A. Walsh, B.K. Russell, J.P. Chittenden, A. Crilly, G. Fiksel, P.M. Nilson, A.G.R. Thomas, K. Krushelnick, L. Willingale), Physical Review Letters 125, (2020).

Automation and Control of Laser Wakefield Accelerators Using Bayesian Optimization (R.J. Shalloo, S.J.D. Dann, J.N. Gruse, C.I.D. Underwood, A.F. Antoine, C. Arran, M. Backhouse, C.D. Baird, M.D. Balcazar, N. Bourgeois, J.A. Cardarelli, P. Hatfield, J. Kangg, K. Krushelnick, S.P.D. Mangles, C.D. Murphy, N. Lu, J. Osterhoff, K. Poder, P.P. Rajeev, C.P. Ridgers, S. Rozario, M.P. Selwood, A.J. Shahani, D.R. Symes, A.G.R. Thomas, C. Thornton, Z. Najmudin, M.J.V. Streeter) Nature Communications, 11 (2020).

Gas Pressure Dependence of Microwave Pulses Generated by Laser-Produced Filament Plasmas (A. Englesbe, J. Elle, R. Reid, A. Lucero, H. Pohle, M. Domonkos, S. Kalmykov, K. Krushelnick, A. Schmitt-Sody), Optics Letters 43, 4953 (2018).

Evidence of Strong Radiation Reaction in the Field of an Ultra-Intense Laser, (K. Poder, M. Tamburini, G. Sarri, A. Di Piazza, S. Kuschel, C. D. Baird, K. Behm, S. Bohlen, J. M. Cole, D. J. Corvan, M. Duff, E. Gerstmayr, C. H. Keitel, K. Krushelnick, S. P. D. Mangles, P. McKenna, C. D. Murphy, Z. Najmudin, C. P. Ridgers, G. M. Samarin, D. Symes, A. G. R. Thomas, J. Warwick, and M. Zepf), Physical Review X 8, 031004 (2018).

Making Pions with Laser Light, (W. Schumaker, T. Liang, R. Clarke, J. M. Cole, G. Grittani, S. Kuschel, S. P. D. Mangles, Z. Najmudin, K. Poder, G. Sarri, D. Symes, A. G. R. Thomas, M. Vargas, M. Zepf, and K. Krushelnick), New Journal of Physics 20, 073008 (2018).

Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Election Beam, (J. M. Cole, K. T. Behm, E. Gerstmayr, T. G. Blackburn, J. C. Wood, C. D. Baird, M. J. Duff, C. Harvey, A. Ilderton, A. S. Joglekar, K. Krushelnick, S. Kuschel, M. Marklund, P. McKenna, C. D. Murphy, K. Poder, C. P. Ridgers, G. M. Samarin, G. Sarri, D. R. Symes, A. G. R. Thomas, J. Warwick, M. Zepf, Z. Najmudin, and S. P. D. Mangles), Physical Review X 8, 011020 (2018).

High-Flux Femtosecond X-Ray Emission from Controllwed Generation of Annular Electron Beams in a Laser Wakefield Accelerator, (T. Z. Zhao, K. Behm, C. F. Dong, X. Davoine, S. Y. Kalmykov, V. Petrov, V. Chvykov, P. Cummings, B. Hou, A. Maksimchuk, J. A. Nees, V. Yanovsky, A. G. R. Thomas, K. Krushelnick), Physical Review Letters 117, 094801 (2016).

Field(s) of Study

• High power lasers, optics, plasmas