Christoph Niemann

Chris Niemann is a Professor of Physics at the University of California Los Angeles. His research focuses on experimental laser-plasma physics in the areas of laboratory astrophysics and high-energy density physics. He has led a small team of researdhers and students to design and build the Phoenix high energy laser at UCLA. His group has used this laser in combination with the Large Plasma Device to generate the first laboratory-scaled collisionless shocks of cosmic relevance, which has been a grand challenge for more than 50 years. Prof. Niemann received his Diploma in Physics from the University of Erlangen Nuernberg (Germany) in 1998 and a PhD in Plasma Physics from the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) in 2002. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty he was a staff member at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory National Ignition Facility.

Featured Publications: 

H. Zhang, J. Pilgram, C. Constantin, L. Rovige, P. Heuer, S. Ghazaryan, M. Kaloyan, D. Schaeffer, C. Niemann, Two-dimensional Thomson scattering in laser-produced plasmas, Instruments 7(3), 25 (2023).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments7030025

J. Pilgram, M. Adams, C. Constantin, P. Heuer, S. Ghazaryan, M. Kaloyan, R. Dorst, D. Schaeffer, P. Tzeferacos, C. Niemann,  High repetition rate exploration of the Biermann battery effect in laser produced plasmas over large spatial regions, High Power Laser Science and Engineering 10, e13 (2022).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2022.2

P. Heuer, M. Weidl, R. Dorst, D. Schaeffer, S. Tripathi, S. Vincena, C. Constantin, C. Niemann, L. Wilson III, D. Winske, Laboratory Observations of Ultra-low-frequency Analog Waves Driven by the Right- hand Resonant Ion Beam Instability, The Astrophysical journal Letters 891, L11 (2020).

DOI doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab75f4

A. Bondarenko, D. Schaeffer, E. Everson, S. Clark, B. Lee, C. Constantin, S. Vincena, B. Van Compernolle, S. Tripathi, D. Winske, C. Niemann, Collisionless momentum transfer in space and astrophysical explosions,  Nature Physics 13, 573 (2017)

DOI: doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS4041

C. Niemann, W. Gekelman, C. Constantin, E.  Everson, D. Schaeffer, A. Bondarenko, S. Clark, D. Winske, B. Van Compernolle, P. Pribyl, Observation of collisionless shocks in a large current-free laboratory plasma, Geophysical. Res. Lett. 41, 7413 (2014),  

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL061820