{"id":356332,"date":"2018-12-28T09:14:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=356332"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:29:18","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:29:18","slug":"the-year-of-the-laser-356332","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/the-year-of-the-laser-356332\/","title":{"rendered":"The year of the laser"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rochester breakthrough in laser science earns Nobel Prize<\/a><\/h3>\n

One of the biggest stories of the year was the selection of Donna Strickland \u201989 (PhD) and Gerard Mourou for the Nobel Prize in Physics<\/a> for their work at the Laboratory of Laser Energetics<\/a> to devise a better way to apply lasers in research, medicine, and everyday life.<\/p>\n

\"two
G\u00e9rard Mourou, left, photographed in Rochester in 1987, and Donna Strickland \u201989 (PhD), in her lab in Rochester in 1985.
(Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to their Nobel noteworthiness, Rochester researchers continue to develop new ways to use lasers in 2018. Because frankly, we\u2019re big on lasers.<\/h2>\n

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Laser bursts generate electricity faster than any other method<\/a><\/h3>\n

Ignacio Franco, assistant professor of chemistry and physics, predicted that laser pulses could generate ultrafast electrical currents. In theory. Now he believes he can explain exactly how and why actual experiments to create these currents have succeeded.<\/p>\n

\"illustration
Generating electrical currents along tiny, nanoscale, electrical circuits.
(Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ illustration \/ Michael Osadciw)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Device creates negative mass \u2014 and a novel way to generate lasers<\/a><\/h3>\n

Most objects react in predictable ways when force is applied to them\u2014unless they have \u201cnegative mass.\u201d Then they react exactly opposite from what you would expect.<\/p>\n

Nick Vamivakas, an associate professor of quantum optics and quantum physics, and other researchers in his lab\u00a0 have succeeded in creating particles with negative mass in an atomically thin semiconductor, by causing it to interact with confined light in an optical microcavity. This alone is \u201cinteresting and exciting from a physics perspective,\u201d says Vamivakas. \u201cBut it also turns out the device we\u2019ve created presents a way to generate laser light with an incrementally small amount of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"illustration
An optical microcavity can \u201cgenerate laser light with an incrementally small amount of power.\u201d
(Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ illustration \/ Michael Osadciw)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Rochester joins new nationwide high-intensity laser network<\/a><\/h3>\n

Rochester\u2019s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), the largest university-based laser facility in the world, is partnering with eight other high-intensity laser facilities to form a new national research network called LaserNetUS, which will\u00a0provide US scientists increased access to high-intensity, ultrafast lasers like the OMEGA EP at the LLE.<\/p>\n

\"The
The main amplifiers at the OMEGA EP laser at the URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics.
(Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Measuring each point of a beam of light<\/a><\/h3>\n

If you want to get the greatest benefit from a beam of light\u2014whether to detect a distant planet or to remedy an aberration in the human eye\u2014you need to be able to measure it. Now professor of optics Chunlei Guo and a team of Rochester research team have devised a much simpler way to measure beams of light\u2014even powerful, superfast pulsed laser beams that require very complicated devices to characterize their properties.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a \u201crevolutionary step forward,\u201d says Guo, and could render traditional instruments for measuring light beams obsolete.<\/p>\n