DISCOVERIES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
2018 NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE SHARED BY THREE SCIENTISTS FOR THEIR WORK THAT “REVOLUTIONISED” LASER PHYSICS
OPTICAL TWEEZERS
American physicist Arthur Ashkin got one half of the Nobel prize for inventing this
Optical tweezers are intense laser beams that can grab microscopic particles and move them about for study.
They use light to move physical objects, “an old dream of science fiction”.
The beams use light’s natural radiation pressure
This allows scientists to examine and manipulate viruses, bacteria, other living cells and individual atoms without damaging them
Ashkin developed the innovation in the 1970s and 1980s
OPTICAL PULSES
Frenchman Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland of Canada got the second half of the Nobel prize for joint development of ultra-short optical pulses.
Mourou and Strickland developed chirped-pulse amplification (CPA)
It enabled researchers to boost laser power but kept the intensity safe by having incredibly short light bursts.
The compressed pulses saw more light packed into a shorter time
It enables beams to cut or drill holes in various materials, including living matter, with extreme precision.
Today the technique is used in millions of laser eye surgeries globally