Laser Physics & Optical Tweezers
Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou & Donna Strickland
About This Prize
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Arthur Ashkin “for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems” and to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland “for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.” Ashkin demonstrated that focused laser beams could trap and manipulate microscopic particles, bacteria, and even viruses using radiation pressure alone. Mourou and Strickland invented Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA), a technique that stretches, amplifies, and recompresses ultrashort laser pulses to achieve unprecedented peak powers without damaging the amplifier, revolutionizing both science and technology.
Arthur Ashkin
“Optical Tweezers and their Application to Biological Systems”
Donna Strickland
“Generating High-Intensity Ultrashort Optical Pulses”
Gérard Mourou
“Passion for Extreme Light: for the Greatest Benefit to Humankind”
Key Concepts
- • Optical Tweezers: Tightly focused laser beams that use radiation pressure gradients to trap and manipulate microscopic particles, cells, and even single molecules
- • Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA): A technique that stretches an ultrashort pulse in time, safely amplifies it, then recompresses it to achieve extreme peak powers
- • Stretching-Amplifying-Compressing: The three-step CPA process that overcomes intensity limits of laser amplifiers by reducing peak power during amplification
- • Applications in Surgery and Industry: CPA enables precision eye surgery (LASIK), industrial machining, and attosecond pulse generation for probing ultrafast phenomena