Dr Zoran Pesic

 

Employed as a Post Doc. University College London (UCL), United Kingdom
Start Date: January 2004, End Date: May 2005

During my PhD studies at Stockholm University (Sweden) I have studied the interaction of highly charged ions with surfaces, with focus to the relaxation of hollow atoms above and below metal surfaces. I have continued these studies at Hahn-Meitner Institute (Berlin, Germany) as post-doc. In addition, I have studied basic processes in ion-molecule collision.

As part of the EPIC network, I am participating in the measurements of direct and total ionization cross sections of water molecule induced by positrons. In particular, I am responsible for managing one of the experimental setups of UCL positron physics group. I have developed the inlet gas line for water introduction in the chamber and have familiarized myself with the positron beamline.

After testing the system, with argon and obtained good agreement with previous results, we have already obtained some preliminary result for direct ionization cross sections of water. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first results for positron impact ionization of water. Further measurements are in progress to improve the statistical accuracy of the data and possibly of the mass spectrometer. I plan to present these data at forthcoming international conferences (EPIC Network meeting, Austria and SPIG2004, Serbia). Further test measurements for the total ionization cross-section are also in progress.

From an academic professional development point of view, I am assisting in the supervision of one PhD student and, from September, I will assist in the undergraduate laboratory for student exercises. I also delivered an invited talk as part of the Departmental Seminar series.

Therefore, I can say that the research fellow position within EPIC Network is providing me with excellent training on collisional physics of positrons with atomic species as well as new experimental techniques (e.g. coincidence techniques) and, not less importantly, an opportunity to develop professionally.