Subject

Physics

Research Interests

I am interested in applications arising from the interaction of very intense laser radiation with matter. Many of these applications require an intense laser pulse to remain focused in a beam of small diameter over a long distance of propagation; something that is prevented by refraction and diffraction of the beam. The laser powers of interest are far too high to use conventional techniques, such as optical fibres: each laser pulse contains more power than the combined output of all the power stations on Earth, and is focused to a diameter somewhat smaller than that of a human hair! My research group has developed a new technique for channelling such intense pulses, and is now investigating its application to driving x-ray lasers and miniature particle accelerators.

Teaching Interests

Undergraduate tutorials: Special Relativity, Electromagnetism, Optics, Radiation and Matter, Atomic Physics.
Undergraduate lectures and classes: Radiation and Matter (Lasers); Laser Physics.
Post-graduate teaching: High-Intensity Laser-Matter Interactions.

Department Information

Department web page: www.physics.ox.ac.uk

Contact Information

Research group web page: www.physics.ox.ac.uk/users/hooker

[Back to Top]