When lasers were first demonstrated in 1960, many people speculated about their potential applications. Now, ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œlasers are everywhere,ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� says . They are used to study gravity and black holes, to manufacture parts in cell phones, and to conduct medical procedures like Lasik eye surgery.
In a video for , Strickland, a professor of physics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and a 2018 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, explains the inner-workings and importance of lasers to five different people: a child, a teenager, a college student, a graduate student, and, finally, to an expert. That expert is Mike Campbell, director of the University of RochesterÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s
In October 2018, Strickland became the third woman ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, for work she conducted at the LLE as a graduate student, which revolutionized the field of high-intensity laser physics. She shared the prize with Gérard Mourou, a former engineering professor and scientist at the LLE and StricklandÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s PhD advisor during the time they pioneered ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œchirped-pulse amplification.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� Known as CPA, this work was the basis of StricklandÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s 1988 PhD dissertation. CPA has since been used to develop lasers as high-powered tools for new medical, scientific, and commercial applications.
Starting by answering the question ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œWhat is a laser?ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� for a nine-year-old child, Strickland moves through progressively more complicated concepts in optics, photonics, and high-intensity laser physics in the video. She ends on a discussion with Campbell, whom she met in 1991 when the two worked together at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œAfter you [Strickland] demonstrated CPA, I was intrigued by how powerful we could make lasers, and how lasers are wonderful because they allow you to take energy and compress it in space and time,ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� Campbell says in the segment.
The two discuss the peak power of lasers, the excitement of conducting photonics research, and future plans for a powerful new laser set up at the LLE.
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Donna Strickland ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™89 (PhD), a self-described ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œlaser jock,ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� receives the Nobel Prize, along with her advisor, Gérard Mourou, for work they did at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

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