We currently have the following projects for master/PhD students

1. Experimental evaluation of the damage and stress that first wall/blanket of fusion reactors are subject to when exposed to neutrons, ions and X-rays, in order to improve their design.
   In a fusion reactor, the first wall (i.e. the component directly facing the plasma), as well as the “blanket” (the layered structures that is behind the first wall, and which role is to evacuate the produced energy, as well as to shield the rest of the facility from the inner radiation) will be subject to intense irradiation from the plasma. Its intensity will induce atom displacement inside the materials, which will in turn lead to structural and mechanical properties change (e.g. embrittlement, elongations, ductility, fracture swelling). It is absolutely critical to know how the materials will behave and how long they will survive when subject to irradiation from the fusion plasma. At present, simulation codes are mostly used to design the fusion reactor components, but these need experimental feedback. Accelerator-based or fission-reactor based irradiations are insufficient, because they cannot produce the adequate spectrum. The project thus aims at taking advantage of laser-driven radiations to perform the first fully-relevant fusion-like irradiation of materials, and to measure the consequences of the induced stress.
2. Generation of an ultra-bright and compact pulsed neutron source using laser-driven low-density foams.
   The point of using the low-density foam is to take advantage of a plasma lensing effect that takes place within it, in order to have the irradiating high-intensity, short-pulse laser being focused by the plasma. This way, the intensity of the laser can be subsequently increased, inducing a correlated increase of the brightness of the secondary neutron source. The project will be performed in collaboration with the SNRC/Soreq.
3. Investigations of fundamental issues pertaining to laser-plasma interactions (LPI).
   The project lies in the broader context that is in the current race toward Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE). Now that indirect-drive ignition has been demonstrated, a practical path toward IFE needs to be defined, but this again needs to solve practical scientific and technological goals. A direct-drive approach, using more practical targets, will be undertaken, which comes with additional physics issues. The project will aim at performing basic science investigations related to the direct-drive scheme of ICF, such that we can progress toward optimized performance of IFE. This will include: (i) foam hydrodynamics, (ii) laser-plasma instabilities mitigation, and (iii) laser beams cross-talk mitigation.
4. Laboratory investigation of cosmic rays-turbulence interactions.
   Cosmic rays (CRs) are high-energy particles, mostly protons, that travel through space. Measurements show that CRs strongly interact with, for example, the interstellar medium (ISM), and that this interaction is dominated by magnetic turbulence. The project aims at investigating the micro plasma physics of cosmic rays interacting with magnetic turbulence, by leveraging the new capabilities offered by laboratory experiments. Such experiments offer a way to access the relevant temporal and spatial scales of the kinetic plasmas involved in CR-ISM interactions, thus enabling us to probe the currently inaccessible fine-scale physics. The following will be investigated: (i) how local plasma conditions and magnetic field turbulence, impact CR acceleration at the source, (ii) how self-induced turbulence, due to the non-resonant Bell instability,  affects CR diffusion, and (iii) how extrinsic, intermittent magnetic turbulence induces diffusion of high-energy particles far away from their source.