Dr Nykola Jones 

 

Employed as a Post Doc. University of Aarhus, Denmark (UAR)
Start Date: 1st September 2002, End Date: 31st August 2004

In 1996 I graduated from the Chemistry department at University College London with a BSc. From there I moved to the Physics department at UCL for postgraduate studies in the Molecular Physics Laboratory, under the supervision of Prof. Nigel Mason. I was awarded a PhD in Physics by the University of London in March 2000. Under EPIC, I have been working in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus in a postdoc position. Throughout the course of my studies and employment I have been involved in a variety of experiments in the area of molecular physics (physical chemistry), investigating atoms and molecules which are relevant to the physics and chemistry of natural and man-made plasmas. These experiments include: Time-of-flight mass spectrometry used in electron-impact ionisation studies to investigate the fragmentation of dications, Electron energy loss spectroscopy, Detection of metastable neutral species in excited states, VUV Photoabsorption spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation, performed on the 3.1 station at Daresbury Laboratory, UK and at UV1 on ASTRID, Denmark.

Under EPIC, I work on an experiment which involves low energy electron scattering from molecules. The experiment uses synchrotron radiation from the undulator in ASTRID to photoionise argon, producing low energy electrons with high resolution. These electrons, formed into a beam, are used in a transmission experiment, from which absolute total integral and backward scattering cross-sections are obtained. During the period of the network, data for a large number of molecules have been obtained and the results are published or will be published in the near future. Also a new apparatus has been designed and is currently under construction which will allow the study of low energy electron interactions with solids.