Professor Murnane of Engineering Physics Program Wins 'Genius Award', continued

Professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn have developed ultrafast high-power lasers with a number of applications.

Together with her collaborator, Professor Henry Kapteyn, she developed ultrafast high power lasers capable of generating intense light pulses only a few optical cycles in duration. These new lasers are being considered for several cutting-edge engineering applications. For example, they can be used to make short pulses of X-rays that could allow high-resolution imaging of the next generation of integrated circuits. Short light pulses can also be used to "quantum engineer" a designer wave function by shaping the light pulse in a particular way. This will allow ultrafast light pulses to be used as catalysts in chemical reactions.

The Engineering Physics Program, based in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, focuses on the physical foundations of modern technology, preparing students for research, development, and entrepreneurial careers in many frontier areas of engineering. Examples include quantum devices, ultrafast lasers, adaptive optics, cryogenic electronics, computer simulation of physical systems, solar cells, magnetic storage technology, micro-mechanical systems, and molecular electronics.

Students often participate in the many research groups associated with the physics department as well, including the Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, JILA (the nation's leading atomic, molecular, and optical physics institute) or the Center for Integrated Plasma Studies.

http://physics.colorado.edu