Some of the most important technologies of the 20th century - television, radio, the microwave oven, the Internet, MRI imaging, and CAT scans - emerged from the understanding and use of electromagnetic radiation, ranging from radio waves to the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

At CU-Boulder, a research team led by physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn is blazing new trails in optical science and technology development by generating new laser-like beams of light that make it possible to "see" and "write" ultra small features and patterns for applications in microscopy and lithography. By firing a laser that generates light pulses with durations as short as 100 trillionths of a second, the team creates beams of short wavelength light that lie in the extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray regions of the spectrum.

	Top: Margaret Murnane and former graduate student David Samuels align a high power, ultrafast laser. Middle: X-ray fiber optics. Bottom: Graduate student Xiaoshi Zhang adjusts the laser, used to explore the limits of generating laser-like x-ray beams.

Murnane and Kapteyn's team includes students from physics, engineering, and chemistry. One of the team's long-term goals is to create and harness laser-like beams of light that will make it possible to build a compact, tabletop x-ray microscope for biological imaging.

"Such microscopes could visualize processes happening within living cells, or perhaps even allow scientists to understand how pharmaceuticals function in detail," said Murnane, who also is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Murnane is considered one of the elite women physicists in the United States. In 2004, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on American scientists. In 2000, she was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, sometimes known as the "genius grant."

In 2003, as part of a proposal submitted by Colorado State University, Murnane and her research group competed successfully for a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center. The goal of the new center, known as the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology, is to develop solutions for a variety of challenging scientific and industrial problems by using short wavelength light. Murnane is a co-principal investigator for the center, which includes collaborators at Colorado State University and the University of California, Berkeley.