Zulfikar Najmudin

Zulfikar Najmudin was born in Kamuli, Uganda, on January 21, 1970. He received the B.A. (Hons) and M.A. degrees from the University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K., and the Ph.D. degree from Imperial College London, London, U.K.

Zulfikar Najmudin is a Professor of Physics and is currently Deputy Director of the John-Adams Institute.

The John-Adams Institute is a joint Institute for research and advancement of accelerator science with the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway College, London. Prof. Najmudin directs the division at Imperial College that specialises in plasma based particle acceleration.

He has been a Lecturer in the Plasma Physics group in the Blackett Laboratory since 2001, and a Professor of Physics since 2011.

His research interests include interaction of high intensity laser with matter, laser-driven fusion and next generation particle accelerators.

He has been responsible for several major advances in the field of laser-plasma particle acceleration, including the first acceleration of electrons to >100 MeV, the first demonstration of narrow energy spread electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators, the first demonstration of (narrow-energy spread) shock acceleration of proton beams, and the brightest measurements yet of x-ray radiation from a laser wakefield accelerator.

Reserch Interest

• High intensity laser-plasma interaction
• Next generation particle accelerators, (intense electron, proton, neutron, gamma ray beams)
• Inertial confinement fusion
• Generation of magnetised plasmas
• Ultrafast (femtosecond) interactions
• Particle in cell simulations of ultrafast plasma physics

Selected Publications

Journals

Chen YH, Ting AC, Hafizi B, et al., 2023, Proton acceleration in an overdense hydrogen plasma by intense CO2 laser pulses with nonlinear propagation effects in the underdense pre-plasma, Physics of Plasmas, Vol:30, ISSN:1070-664X

Streeter MJV, Ma Y, Kettle B, et al., 2022, Characterization of laser wakefield acceleration efficiency with octave spanning near-IR spectrum measurements, Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, Vol:25

Dickson LT, Underwood CID, Filippi F, et al., 2022, Mechanisms to control laser-plasma coupling in laser wakefield electron acceleration, Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, Vol:25, ISSN:2469-9888, Pages:1-12

Alejo A, Ahmed H, Krygier AG, et al., 2022, Stabilized Radiation Pressure Acceleration and Neutron Generation in Ultrathin Deuterated Foils, Physical Review Letters, Vol:129, ISSN:0031-9007

Martin P, Ahmed H, Doria D, et al., 2022, Absolute calibration of Fujifilm BAS-TR image plate response to laser driven protons up to 40 MeV, Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol:93, ISSN:0034-6748