Rob Shalloo, a staff scientist in the Plasma Accelerators group at DESY, has been selected by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the prestigious Emmy Noether Programme. As an alternative track to traditional habilitation, the Emmy Noether Programme enables outstanding early career researchers to qualify for university professorship by leading an independent research group for a period of six years. The new group is the first of its kind in the Accelerator Division at DESY and will focus on developing advanced plasma source technology for high-energy laser plasma accelerators.

Plasmas accelerators are on the verge of triggering a revolution in accelerator science. Particle accelerators based on plasma technology can be up to 1000x smaller than those based on the conventional radio-frequency cavities. This dramatic reduction in machine size opens up the possibility of deploying ultra-compact accelerators closer to the target application; for example in universities, hospitals and factories, greatly increasing the availability of electron and photon beams for applications in areas of high societal impact. “Plasma accelerators offer us the opportunity to realise compact and, in the future, maybe even mobile accelerator applications. Accelerator systems based on plasmas can also be very energy-efficient overall, offering the potential for green and sustainable operation” says Jens Osterhoffleading scientist for plasma acceleration at DESY. “Eventually, this accelerator-miniaturisation process will entail a paradigm shift in the use of particle accelerators”.

Rob Shalloo’s work focuses on controlling these ultra-compact accelerators by accurately tailoring the structure of the plasma within the accelerator. “The density, the size, the shape and the composition of the plasma can all play critical roles in controlling the accelerator dynamics,” he explains. “Together with high-quality drive lasers, the careful tailoring of these plasma sources is the key to generating high-quality electron beams.” The DFG has awarded Rob 1.8 million euros to set up a new Emmy Noether group to work towards his ambitious research project SPLICE: Structured Plasmas for Laser Driven Control of Electron Beams. “My team will explore the use of optical methods to shape the plasma at the heart of the accelerator. We need to generate a structure suitable for both controlling how the high-intensity drive laser propagates in the plasma while simultaneously controlling the quality and evolution of the injected electron beams. Ultimately, we are working towards generating electron beams which could be suitable for driving a compact X-ray free-electron laser.”

“The concepts developed by Rob and his team are really exciting. Integrating them into our accelerator development will be crucial for the success of our plasma accelerators, especially for a future plasma-based PETRA IV injector”, adds Andreas Maier, leading scientist in the Accelerator Division.

Wim Leemans, DESY Director of the Accelerator Division, congratulates Rob Shalloo for his prestigious nomination: “It fills me with pride to see that Rob is now setting up a new Emmy Noether group. The award is a further proof of the great spirit of optimism and the expertise of young researchers that has developed here at DESY around the topic of plasma acceleration. We are all driven by the vision of making plasma acceleration applicable to a wide range of societal problems as quickly as possible.”

The 31 years old Irish researcher Rob Shalloo completed a Bachelor in Physics at the University College Cork with a year at the University of California Berkeley before moving to the University of Oxford to pursue a DPhil in Particle Physics. He then moved to Imperial College London for a Postdoc before joining the Plasma Accelerators Group at DESY in 2020.