Sébastien Corde

After graduating from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in 2008, Sébastien Corde joined the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée at École Polytechnique to work as a graduate student on the development of laser-plasma accelerators and their applications to femtosecond light sources. Within a few years he became an expert in his field, publishing an in-depth review article in Reviews of Modern Physics covering the research area of femtosecond x-ray sources from laser-plasma accelerators. Through a series of groundbreaking experiments, he pushed forward the understanding of the interaction underlying laser-plasma accelerators, demonstrated an innovative all-optical Compton gamma-ray source, and showed the potential of these novel light sources for applications, such as phase contrast imaging. Sébastien received his PhD in 2012 and was awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Beam Physics Award from the American Physical Society, the “Prix René Pellat” from the French Physical Society, the John Dawson Thesis prize from the Laser and Plasma Accelerators Workshop, and the “Prix de thèse de l’École Polytechnique” from his graduate school, École Polytechnique. He continued his career as a Research Associate in the plasma wakefield acceleration group at SLAC, led by Mark J. Hogan. The experiments that he conducted at FACET have led to fast experimental progress in the field of plasma wakefield acceleration, e.g. with the demonstration of ultrahigh-field, low-energy spread acceleration of positrons in a plasma, published in Nature. Subtle physical effects, such as dark current induced by multiple ionization, and major milestones, such as the demonstration of the high-efficiency acceleration of an electron beam, were reported in high impact publications. In 2015, Sébastien started an appointment as Assistant Professor at École Polytechnique, continuing his research at the interface between beam-driven and laser-driven plasma accelerators, in particular in the context of his ERC Starting Grant project “Miniature beam-driven Plasma ACcelerators” (M-PAC). Contributing with key physics insight, such as the understanding of the role of self-focusing and head erosion for plasma acceleration in beam-ionized noble gases or the characterization of the field structure in the blowout cavity, he also lead many major experimental achievements in the field of positron acceleration in plasmas. Taking advantage of the synergies between beam-driven and laser-driven plasma accelerators, he showed their potential for an original hybrid source of bright gamma rays. Becoming full professor in 2019, Sébastien’s research activities are covering a broad range of physics phenomena in the context of the interaction between lasers, particle beams and plasmas, and their applications to particle accelerators, light sources and laboratory astrophysics. This includes the development a proof-of-concept plasma-accelerator-based free-electron laser, considered as the so-called 5th generation light source, the experimental and numerical study of astrophysically-relevant electromagnetic filamentation instabilities and of positron acceleration in plasma, beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiments using the FACET-II facility at SLAC, as well as an experimental research program on hybrid staging of laser-driven and beam-driven plasma accelerators.