Episode 295 - Powerful and precise Lasers - Nobel Prize in Physics '18

Laser are used in some many things around us from computer storage, discs, communication, medical scanning and even laser surgery. Turning lasers from an expensive tool in the exclusive hands of large laboratories to something people all over the world can simply and easily use required groundbreaking physics. As did turning a laser into a pair of precise tweezers. For that groundbreaking research Arthur Ashkin, Gerad Morou and Donna Strickland won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018. We find out about lasers, how they're used and how they were made powerful and precise. References: Ashkin, A. (1997) Optical trapping and manipulation of neutral particles using lasers, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 94, pp. 4853–4860 Strickland, D. and Mourou, G. (1985) Compression of Amplified Chirped Optical Pulses, Optics Communications , Vol. 56, Nr 3 How Lasers Work. (2018). Retrieved from https://lasers.llnl.gov/education/how_lasers_work The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, The Nobel Committee for Physics. (2018, October). Tools made of light [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/10/popular-physicsprize2018.pdf Image Credit: Baxley/JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) frequency comb, 2012