Katzenstein Distinguished Physics Lecture

“Generating High-Intensity, Ultrashort Optical Pulses”

Dr. Donna Strickland Nobel Laureate 2018 Department of Physics & Astronomy University of Waterloo

With the invention of lasers, the intensity of a light wave was increased by orders of magnitude over what had been achieved with a light bulb or sunlight. This much higher intensity led to new phenomena being observed, such as violet light coming out when red light went into the material. After Gérard Mourou and I developed chirped pulse amplification, also known as CPA, the intensity again increased by more than a factor of 1,000 and it once again made new types of interactions possible between light and matter. We developed a laser that could deliver short pulses of light that knocked the electrons off their atoms. This new understanding of laser-matter interactions, led to the development of new machining techniques that are used in laser eye surgery or micromachining of glass used in cell phones.

Friday, September 23, 2022 4:00 p.m. Student Union Ballroom, Room 330/331

Refreshments will be prior to the talk at 3:00 p.m. in the Gant Science Complex Light Court