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Applications are now open until 23rd March 2025.
Are you an undergraduate student in a physics or engineering degree and would like a chance to work on a particle accelerator science and technology project? By joining the Cockcroft Institute summer internship programme, you will get involved with unique, world-leading research and development of particle accelerators. The experience you’ll gain will lay a strong foundation for progressing your studies with a Ph.D. programme or accessing the career of your choice in physics or engineering.
Projects have a minimum length of 6 weeks and can involve mathematical physics, computer simulation or hands-on experience through experimental studies at one of our partner universities or with the accelerator science and technology centre. The CI summer internship programme also includes industrially sponsored opportunities.
The internship will also include a few days training where the full cohort will be based at Daresbury Laboratory to learn about particle accelerator technology and see our amazing facilities.
You will be paid a minimum of the national living wage.
You need to be in your final 2 years at university and on track for a first- or upper second-class undergraduate degree classification in physics or engineering. You must have the right to work in the UK.
If interested, please email your CV including a marks transcript where possible or a list of marks for relevant subject areas, together with a covering letter to info@cockcroft.ac.uk by 23rd March 2025.
We will let you know if your application has been successful by May 2025.
The student will work in my fibre laser lab, initially learning how to set up and align the laser system, and then working on developing a single shot autocorrelator to measure the pulse duration of the laser after compression. This will be used to optimise the compressor in the lab, and if there is sufficient time, add in an additional amplification stage using photonic crystal fibre, and compressing the amplified pulses. This project will support new experiments on fibre combination in the lab and provide invaluable practical lab experience for a student, as well as in data collection and analysis and writing code.
Interested students should contact Dr. Laura Corner (laura.corner@liverpool.ac.uk) for more information.
The student will work in the laser lab, investigating the formation and measurement of longitudinally polarised light. This will involve generating radially polarised light and then focusing it with an axicon to generate significant on-axis polarisation. The student will develop a methodology for measuring the longitudinal component of the focused light. This project will provide practical lab experience as well as experiment design, data collection and analysis.
Interested students should contact Dr. Laura Corner (laura.corner@liverpool.ac.uk) for more information.
Plasma has good conducting properties formed by a sea of free electrons and the heavier, almost motionless ions. The interaction between the plasma electrons with high-power lasers or high-energy charged particles has a rich underlying physics. The technologies led by these interactions enable the particle accelerators of the future to have much greater capabilities than today.
In this project, you will join us in our world-leading accelerator physics institute to learn about the underlying physics of the interactions between plasma electrons and high-power laser pulses or charged particle beams. Once you establish a theoretical foundation, you will be using an existing simulation code to model these interactions. You will be working in a dynamic environment, including a group of PhD students, and meet your line manager daily.
The findings of your work will inform the implementation of a plasma target for prospective experiments in our local facility CLARA/FEBE. Currently under construction, FEBE is a unique facility in the UK and rare worldwide, providing access to a high-energy electron beam and a high-power laser. Being so, it is the ultimate testbed for laser-driven plasma experimentation in our region.
Interested students should contact Dr. Oznur Apsimon (oznur.apsimon@manchester.ac.uk) for more information.
The plasma source is one of the key components in any plasma-based accelerator. It plays the most important role in determining the quality of the beam from novel plasma accelerators. Research and development into the discharge-based plasma source have recently attracted great interest worldwide due to their intrinsic properties. An initiative has been created at the University of Manchester as a Cockcroft Institute of Accelerator Science and Technology partner.
Capillary plasma sources can sustain much longer plasmas and hence have a potential for scalability. Moreover, they enable the formation of parabolic plasma channels allowing high-power laser propagation in plasmas for multiple Rayleigh lengths with constant spot size under certain matching conditions. This is crucial, for example, to achieve a reasonable interaction length for laser-driven plasma applications. Before parabolic density correlation occurs in a capillary-based target at a specific time, the transverse plasma profile starts evolving after a slow discharge. Channel formation is achieved through the characterisation of the radial density evolution of the plasma as a function of time and discharge circuit properties. This can be simulated using fluid dynamics codes such as USIM or OpenFoam.
In this project, you will be understanding the underlying physics of the existing simulation program, OpenFoam and modelling the dynamics of gas injected into a cylindrical capillary vessel. There is also a possibility of experimental work in order to build an interferometer for plasma density measurements.
Interested students should contact Dr. Oznur Apsimon (oznur.apsimon@manchester.ac.uk) for more information.
Terahertz-driven Acceleration is a novel technique being explored with the goal of compact, energy-efficient electron acceleration with picosecond-scale control over electron bunch parameters. Electrons are accelerated by interaction with a travelling THz pulse in a dielectric-lined waveguide, as this type of structure allows for velocity matching between the beam and pulse. A proof-of-concept design has been fabricated and will shortly be tested in our experimental bunker. Meanwhile, we are studying new design options for future structures at higher gradients. The intern would use computer simulations in CST Studio Suite to aid in the study of some of the possible design features being considered. This may include tolerance studies, novel geometric modifications, and additional features such as corrugated linings.
Interested students should contact Dr. Laurence Nix (l.nix@lancaster.ac.uk ) for more information.
The project will be to implement machine learning to model BBU for Energy Recovery Linacs. The simulation codes take a long time to run due to the complexity of the equations, and analytical models are difficult to do accurately, this study would be a major step forward in the field and would likely lead to a publication.
Interested students should contact Dr. Robert Apsimon (r.apsimon@lancaster.ac.uk ) for more information.
The Cockcroft Institute is offering businesses unique access to high-calibre students to work on 6-week experimental and exploratory projects.
Students will be employed by one of the Cockcroft partner universities and supervised by an experienced member of our team to help guide the work.
Students can be physically based in one of our laboratories or on your business premises.
Cost: £4000 (reduced to £2000 where there is a joint industry/academic focus)
Please contact info@cockcroft.ac.uk for more information.