Training opportunities for users

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The CLF organises a number of opportunities for users to learn, talk about, and have hands-on training on the CLF’s facilities. These are provided to help you make the most of your experimental time at the CLF.

Please note that these are not mandatory for access. Our mandatory training for users with accepted proposals can be found here:

User safety information

Opportunities for both LSF and HPL users

High Power Lasers (HPL) Annual Christmas Meeting

This is a three-day scientific conference for the users of the HPL facilities of the CLF and those closely affiliated. It is primarily aimed at PhD students and early career researchers. It includes about 40 slots for 10-minute oral presentations, a poster session for students, and a poster session for established researchers. PhD students are prioritised in scheduling oral presentations. We aim to cover as many of the scientific topics associated with the HPL facilities as possible. We also arrange ‘tutorial talks’ to provide introductions or reviews of various areas.

Policies

The meeting has policies regarding:

conduct: the standard of behaviour that we expect of people attending the meeting
information: how we handle and process information that we gather from attendees
travel: our policy for reimbursing travel costs for those attending the meeting.

Invitation letter

The invitation letter is usually sent in June or July each year. If you were expecting an invitation but have not received it by the end of July, please contact us.

HPL Training Weeks

The CLF has a programme of training for high power laser (HPL) science that has been running for over 20 years.

Approximately once a year, a two-week course is run, called Training Weeks, primarily aimed at early-stage PhD students who are starting out in the field of HPL experiments. The course is tailored to meet the needs of Gemini, Vulcan and EPAC, the CLF’s HPL facilities, but is a good general introductory course.

Students benefit from the experiences of the CLF staff and have an excellent opportunity to network with other members of the HPL community and attend lectures by guest speakers.

Recent lecture topics have included ion acceleration, electron acceleration, astrophysical phenomena and summaries of international facilities. Some of the activities that the course will cover include experimental set-up, optical alignment techniques, laser and plasma diagnostics, vacuum and drive system operation, target fabrication and general safety.

Any application to the CLF’s HPL Training Weeks should include:

the status of your PhD or postdoc project, if applicable, in years
your current research topic
your home institute and size of your group
any upcoming experiments that you will participate in
the details of all your prior experimental experience

This course is open to those attending a UK academic institution, but priority is typically given to first year PhD students, and those who have not attended an experiment on CLF facilities before. Travel and subsistence will be covered by the CLF. There are a limited number of places, so priority will be given to those expected to attend CLF experiments in the near future. Please highlight this when applying, if applicable.

Lasers for Science Facility (LSF) user meeting

Octopus DTP training