On August 27, 2024, scholars, trustees, and friends of UConn gathered at the University of Connecticut School of Law to honor members of the university community elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Established by an Act of Congress in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences was followed by the National Academy […]
Every year, the American Physical Society (APS) sponsors CU*IP – Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities in Physics – at several locations around the country. This year, led by Prof. Nora Berrah, UConn Physics applied to host this national conference in Storrs and our proposal was accepted for January 24-26, 2025! The purpose of […]
The University of Connecticut, Department of Physics is proud to announce the 26th Annual Katzenstein Distinguished Lecturer that will be on Friday, November 15th.
UConn faculty and students will host a community event to view the solar eclipse at 2:00-4:30pm this Monday, April 8, on Horsebarn Hill (behind the Dairy Bar). Here in Storrs we’ll observe a maximum occultation of 92% at 3:28pm. This is a very exciting and special opportunity, since the next time that our location will […]
Gérard Mourou, École polytechnique Palaiseau France
PASSION EXTREME LIGHT AND APPLICATIONS TO THE GREATEST BENEFIT OF HUMAN KIND
Extreme-light laser is a universal source providing a vast range of high energy radiations and particles along with the highest field, highest pressure, temperature and acceleration. It offers the possibility to shed light on some of the remaining unanswered questions in fundamental physics like the genesis of cosmic rays with energies in excess of 1020 eV or the loss of information in black-holes. Using wake-field acceleration some of these fundamental questions could be studied in the laboratory. In addition extreme-light makes possible the study of the structure of vacuum and particle production in “empty” space which is one of the field’s ultimate goal, reaching into the fundamental QED and possibly QCD regimes. Looking beyond today’s intensity horizon, we will introduce a new concept that could make possible the generation of attosecond-zeptosecond high energy coherent pulse, de facto in x-ray domain, opening at the Schwinger level, the zettawatt, and PeV regime; the next chapter of laser-matter interaction.