Dr Christian Brahms - Heriot-Watt University

Dr Brahms will develop new high-performance laser sources which emit radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region, between 100 nm and 200 nm wavelength. Light in this wavelength band is quickly absorbed by virtually everything. This makes VUV light the perfect tool for many laser applications which require extreme precision, but it also poses a major challenge in generating the light to begin with. In his research, Dr Brahms exploits the interaction between intense ultrashort laser pulses and gases inside hollow-core waveguides to convert conventional infrared laser radiation to the VUV. This will create high-power VUV laser beams which can be focused much more tightly and to much higher intensity than currently available, while also adding wavelength tuning capabilities and the generation of extremely short laser pulses.