Atomic and Laser physics
26 January 2012
Laser hints at how Universe got its magnetism
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/cover.png?itok=5HgX1yTl)
An international research team lead by Dr G Gregori with fellow Oxford physicists Prof A R Bell, Dr C Murphy and Dr B Reville (from Atomic and Laser Physics) have used a laser to create magnetic fields similar to those thought to be involved in the formation of the first galaxies; findings that could help to solve the riddle of how the Universe got its magnetism.
26 January 2012
2,000,000 degree matter mimics stars
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/13957_2_million_matter.jpg?itok=GvqZq0ZU)
Extreme conditions of temperature and pressure found in stars have been recreated on Earth using the world's brightest X-ray source.
An international team, led by Oxford University scientists, studied how solid matter responded to X-ray laser pulses produced by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) based in Stanford, California. The team focused the X-rays onto a spot 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, heating a metal foil to two million degrees Celsius within a fraction of a trillionth of a second.
14 May 2011
Coherent control of molecules for pulse compression
![](https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/square_image/public/raman_source.jpeg?itok=jvphsfDp)
Andrea Schiavi, Dr Adam S Wyatt, Professor Ian Walmsley