Nikolai Kiesel (Vienna): The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 and the versatile applications of optical forces

Dienstag, 30. April 2019 17:30

Ort: Lise-Meitner-Hörsaal, Strudlhofgasse 4, 1. Stock

Vortrag im Rahmen der Chemisch Physikalischen Gesellschaft

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 was awarded for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics: Arthur Ashkin was honored for optical tweezers and their application to biological systems. Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland jointly received the price for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.
After an overview of the story behind these groundbreaking inventions and their inventors, I will briefly discuss some of the scientific fields they enabled or influenced, like attosecond sci-ence, frequency combs, atom-quantum optics and optical micromanipulation. These fields con-tinue to have a tremendous impact, partially leading to Nobel prize winning discoveries them-selves. As a final topic, I will focus on a young line of research at our Faculty of Physics that directly roots in Arthur Ashkins initial experiments: Optical levitation is about to become a new tool to investigate fundamental questions in statistical physics as well as macroscopic quantum physics and may provide the basis for sensors of unmatched performance.

Location:

Lise-Meitner-Hörsaal, Strudlhofgasse 4, 1. Stock