Among sciences, physics is the study of relationships.  In this area of our work, we discover deeper insights into the relationship between light and matter, by going to the most extreme intensities of light possible with the newest kinds of ultrafast ultraintense laser.

The new context created when light is 22 orders of magnitude more intense than sunlight lets us see more deeply into how matter and light define each other.

Laser pulses with up to a few joules of energy, a few tens of femtoseconds in duration -- a disk the size of a DVD in diameter but the thickness of a sheet of typing paper -- fly at the speed of light through the laser system and off a curved mirror, focussing down to the size of a hair.  The target it hits heats from room temperature to 10 million degrees, a temperature change of more than 1020 degrees per second, while remaining at solid density.

This opens, too, the possibility to study the state of matter inside a star -- or inside a supernova. The field is broad and deep, a challenge for students who are curiosity-driven.   more...

Research is a process, in addition to an action:  new ideas and new methods evolve, often towards solving existing problems.

Applications of our work -- ideas and methods, both -- have led to new abilities and new approaches in the microprocessing of materials using ultrafast lasers, and from there to new possibilities in medical biophysics and the use of lasers in surgery.  The method of pulsetrain-burst processing, discovered and developed in our lab, has led to a patent recently licensed to IMRA Inc., and Rofin, and collaborations with a number of optics and photonics companies.

This applied physics, and the job-connections to industry, often interests students who would like eventually to work in research and development in companies. more...

Last update : 2016 September

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