APS congratulates the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics recipients Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou, and Donna Strickland “for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.” Half of the prize goes to Ashkin for a device called “optical tweezers” for grabbing and manipulating small objects and its application to biological systems. The other half is jointly awarded to Mourou and Strickland for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. Both inventions represent major breakthroughs in the use of laser beams for practical purposes. Photo credit: Ashkin: A. Ashkin, Mourou: ELSA Lab, Strickland: University of Waterloo
Four seminal Physical Review articles related to Ashkin's research have been made free-to-read.
Acceleration and Trapping of Particles by Radiation Pressure
A. Ashkin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 24, 156 (1970)
Trapping of Atoms by Resonance Radiation Pressure
A. Ashkin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 729 (1978)
Experimental Observation of Optically Trapped Atoms
Steven Chu, J. E. Bjorkholm, A. Ashkin, and A. Cable
Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 314 (1986)
Motion of Atoms in a Radiation Trap
J. P. Gordon and A. Ashkin
Phys. Rev. A 21, 1606 (1980)