The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018
Born: 27 May 1959, Guelph, Canada
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Prize motivation: “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”
Work
The sharp beams of laser light have given us new opportunities for deepening our knowledge about the world and shaping it. In 1985, Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland succeeded in creating ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses without destroying the amplifying material. First they stretched the laser pulses in time to reduce their peak power, then amplified them, and finally compressed them. The intensity of the pulse then increases dramatically. Chirped pulse amplification has many uses, including corrective eye surgeries.
