Plasma Wakefield Accelerators

Laser Plasma Interaction at Ultra High Fields

2010-07-29T18:52:00.000+05:30

Title: Laser Plasma Interaction at Ultra High Intensities:

Various Process Studies & Ultrashort Pulse Characterization

Duration: 30 mins

Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010

Venue: School of Physics, Devi Ahilya University, Indore, India

Particle Accelerators - Part II

2010-04-15T02:10:00.000+05:30

Title: Particle Accelerators - Part II

Subtitle: (Setting up the Experiment)

Duration: 45 mins

Date: Monday, April 12, 2010

Venue: School of Physics, Devi Ahilya University, Indore, India

Particle Accelerators - Part I

2010-04-12T02:29:00.001+05:30

Title: Particle Accelerators - Part I

Subtitle: (Introduction & Applications)

Duration: 1.18 hours

Date: Saturday, April 03, 2010

Venue: School of Physics, Devi Ahilya University, Indore, India

Visit to RRCAT for completing formalities

2009-12-15T08:05:00.000+05:30

Well, yesterday I visited RRCAT for completing the formalities and paperwork to get started and met my Supervisors. In brief the update is that they are now setting up the building for a 100 TW Laser Facility which is some really good news for India!

Secondly, Dr. B. S. Rao who works on Laser Plasma Wakefield Accelerators is returning end-of-week so I will be reporting to him on Monday. He will be briefing me and also providing me with papers and review articles! As part of my Project I will be working on both nano-second and femto-second Laser-Plasma Interactions as the interactions at both the timescales different and worthy of study.

I also hear that a famous Russian scientist will also be joining us early next week. Not to mention I will be working with Mr. Vipul Arora who currently has the laser-time on the 10 TW laser for the next three weeks to understand the fundamentals and other working details. Another student from my University Aprit is working under Dr. Rao and possibly on LWFAs so I should stay in touch with him.

Last week LWFA results have been pretty good and we achieved 50 MeV over a distance of 200 micro-m.

I will also need to study about lasers, focusing optics, properties of the beam, diagnostics, off-axis parabola, refractive and reflective optics (both advantages and working).

There is also a meeting every day at 9:30 a in Dr. Naik's office which typically lasts till 10:15 a where the progress of the last day and the agenda for the day is discussed with him so daily progress is monitored. No wonder if I am one of the participating members if I am working on the laser, then at least two of the members should go and get the laser ready while the third one attends the meeting.

Rest, I will have access to a chair-table and a common computer in a study room which I haven't seen today but I will see later. Bye and more later.

As usual, I have exams and its difficult to be able to take a nap! Thanks.

Formalities completed on my end

2009-12-12T23:24:00.001+05:30

Well, today, the day began as usual for me at noon. Got information about Stamp Papers and Notaries. Got ready, had a quick breakfast, and I was on the fly. Had already prepared the Agreement to be executed between RRCAT and myself on the previous night so just got things in place and I was done in about 1 1/2 hours. Returned back around 3 pm and then completed some other supplemental formalities for the RRCAT security and administration. Needless to mention, I do not like to do all this, it is an inexpensive wastage of time. Nevertheless, I may also mention what one of the trainees at RRCAT told me, it will take you five days to get these formalities done, and here I was "done" is less than two-hours, :) Finally, I will be visiting them coming Mon for finalization of everything!

Not a part of this Blog: Then, I still felt very tired as if I hadn't slept at all. Tried to work on one of my "mammoth" assignments. Typesetting sure was beautiful, :) though my head certainly did not feel great about it, :)

Project on Laser Plasma Interactions has been "Approved!!" at RRCAT, India

2009-12-12T01:13:00.013+05:30

After a long wait, I finally got my "Confirmation Letter" today! Am I happy? Yeah, I am on "Cloud # 10!", :-)

Well, the last many months have been more exciting than ever before. As for the last few weeks, I wouldn't say, very good in the "sleep" sense but sure I loved them. Just the only bit of trouble being that I could not even peacefully take a short nap or sleep long enough to feel fresh again. Every time I tried to lie down and close my eyes, I was back in LBL, Berkeley or RRCAT, Indore and started thinking about lasers and plasma wakefield accelerators. Insane you may call it, I wouldn't beg to differ, :-) My roommate sure would have comments to offer, lol! And the worst, I had exams during this time and a lot of work. And this "sleep-mess" wasn't all that nice a thing considering the importance of all the other stuff I was upto. Anyway, I still don't have a clue how to get over this, any ideas?

Finally, I was away for shopping late in the evening. While returning back, I got "some" bananas for myself but then I felt why not take some for the inmates (lol!) in my hostel who have known me and been nice to me over the last 1 1/2 year. So, I took another two-dozen, went to a Hanuman Temple and offered the same to God for blessings. You may be wondering its a rather weird choice for "prasad" but I felt that both the deity and myself shared a common liking for bananas and sure they are healthy, so why not! :-) After being blessed, the young priest returned them to me, there was a friend of his there, I offered him one, the priest another (why not after all!), and a dog which I wouldn't know if he/she would eat but I tried to offer nevertheless after the priest said it would eat it. But you know what, he/she walked right next to me as if asking for the blessed-banana. When I gave it to him/her, he/she would still follow me since I had the bags that contained the prasad in my hands: I felt confused what he/she wanted(!), only to understand that I don't quite understand dogs, lol! Then, while I wore my shoes, I felt maybe it didn't consume the banana as it was wrapped in the yellow casing, :-) So, I washed my hands and peeled the banana like a monkey, :-) Offered the same to the little one as is he/she were a kid, lol! Someone should have captured me doing that (was kinda cute!). Finally, offered the blessing to many of my favourite inmates! Some of them as usual were curious as to from which God's Temple is the prasad from. Well, I didn't like the question in the first instance but then I thought, why does it really matter. I told them, God is everywhere and also that it doesn't really matter from which Temple I got the prasad from but that if "God was present there while the priest was trying hard to get the bananas blessed". Thanks! :-)

Behind the scenes: I did not know if I could offer bananas to Hanuman ji! Clarified the same from his friend who didn't know either, :-) The priest said a yes though! Then, after a while he (the priest) "finally" asked me if I were new in the hostel. No, I have been there for a year and a half! You should have see the look on his face, :-) I told him, its my first time visiting the Temple. I may avoid mentioning I pass it every day a couple of times at least and it is around a 120 m from my hostel! Do you still have any questions about my happiness? :-)