UK laser technology could help boost performance of Large Hadron Collider

Jointly developed by researchers from the University of Dundee and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the technology - which is known as LESS (Laser Engineered Surface Structures) - could increase the range of experiments possible on the LHC by helping to clear the so-called “electron cloud”: a cloud of negative particles which can degrade the performance of the primary proton beams that circulate in the accelerator.

Prof Amin Abdolvand, Chair of Functional Materials & Photonics at the University of Dundee explained that current efforts to limit these effects involve applying composite metal or amorphous carbon coatings to the inner surfaces of the LHC vacuum chambers. However these processes are expensive and time consuming.

With CERN preparing to upgrade the collider to use proton beams that double the intensity of the current ones, it is looking to reduce the electron cloud problem to much lower levels. The LESS method, which uses lasers to manipulate the surface of metals, could be the solution to this.