Gérard Albert Mourou (; born 22 June 1944)
is a French scientist and pioneer in the field of
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and
lasers
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
. He was awarded a
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
in 2018, along with
Donna Strickland, for the invention of
chirped pulse amplification
Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The stretching and ...
, a technique later used to create ultrashort-pulse, very high-intensity (
petawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...
) laser pulses.
In 1994, Mourou and his team at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
discovered that the balance between the self-focusing refraction (see
Kerr effect
The Kerr effect, also called the quadratic electro-optic (QEO) effect, is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an applied electric field. The Kerr effect is distinct from the Pockels effect in that the induced index chan ...
) and self-attenuating
diffraction
Diffraction is the deviation of waves from straight-line propagation without any change in their energy due to an obstacle or through an aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the Wave propagation ...
by
ionization
Ionization or ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive Electric charge, charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged at ...
and rarefaction of a laser beam of terawatt intensities in the atmosphere creates "filaments" that act as
waveguide
A waveguide is a structure that guides waves by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Common types of waveguides include acoustic waveguides which direct sound, optical waveguides which direct light, and radio-frequency w ...
s for the beam, thus preventing divergence.
Career
Mourou has been director of the Laboratoire d'optique appliquée at the
ENSTA from 2005 to 2009. He is a professor and member of Haut Collège at the
École polytechnique
(, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris.
The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...
and A. D. Moore Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
where he has taught for over 16 years. He was the founding director of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan in 1990. He had previously led a research group on ultrafast sciences at Laboratoire d'optique appliquée of ENSTA and École polytechnique, after obtaining a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
degree from
Pierre and Marie Curie University
Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...
in 1973. He then went to the United States and became a professor at the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...
in 1977, where he and his then student
Donna Strickland produced their Nobel prize-winning work in the
Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the university. The pair co-invented
chirped pulse amplification
Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The stretching and ...
, a "method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses".
Strickland's doctoral thesis was on "development of an ultra-bright laser and an application to multi-photon ionization".
In the 2000s, Mourou was featured by a French film company in a publicity video for the
Extreme Light Infrastructure
The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is a research organization with the world's largest collection of high power-lasers. ELI operates several high-power, high-repetition-rate laser systems which enable the research of physical, chemical, materi ...
(ELI).
Nobel Prize
On 2 October 2018, Mourou and
Strickland were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for their joint work on
chirped pulse amplification
Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The stretching and ...
.
They shared half of the Prize, while the other half was awarded to
Arthur Ashkin
Arthur Ashkin (September 2, 1922 – September 21, 2020) was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Labs. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers, "LaserFest – the 50th anniversary of the firs ...
for his invention of "optical tweezers that grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam fingers".
Mourou and Strickland found that stretching a laser out reduced its peak power, which could then be greatly amplified using normal instruments.
It could then be compressed to create the short-lived, highly powerful lasers they were after.
The technique, which was described in Strickland's first scientific publication, came to be known as chirped pulse amplification (CPA). They were probably unaware at the time that their tools would make it possible to study natural phenomena in unprecedented ways.
CPA could also per definition be used to create a laser pulse that only lasts one attosecond, one-billionth of a billionth of a second. At those timescales, it became possible not only to study chemical reactions, but what happens inside individual atoms.
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' and
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
provided simplified summaries of the work of Strickland and Mourou: it "paved the way for the shortest, most intense laser beams ever created". "The ultrabrief, ultrasharp beams can be used to make extremely precise cuts so their technique is now used in laser machining and enables doctors to perform millions of corrective"
laser eye surgeries.
Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...
acknowledged the achievements of Mourou and Strickland: "Their innovative work can be found in applications including corrective eye surgery, and is expected to have a significant impact on cancer therapy and other physics research in the future".
Awards and honors
*1995 –
R. W. Wood Prize by the
OSA
*1997 – SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award
*2002 –
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
Member
*2004 – IEEE LEOS
Quantum Electronics Award
*2005 – Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics
*2009 –
Charles Hard Townes Award by the
OSA
* 2016 –
Frederic Ives Medal
* 2016 –
Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis
*2018 –
Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science by the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
*2018 –
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
, together with
Arthur Ashkin
Arthur Ashkin (September 2, 1922 – September 21, 2020) was an American scientist and Nobel laureate who worked at Bell Labs. Ashkin has been considered by many as the father of optical tweezers, "LaserFest – the 50th anniversary of the firs ...
and
Donna Strickland
* 2020 – Honorary Doctorate of
Vilnius University
Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...
* 25 February 2020 – Honorary Doctorate of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
ceremony
Writings
*
References
External links
*
Ecole Polytechnique, PalaiseauCenter for Ultrafast Optical Science* including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2018 ''Passion for Extreme Light: for the greatest benefit to human kind''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mourou, Gerard
1944 births
Living people
Academic staff of École Polytechnique
Fellows of the IEEE
Fellows of Optica (society)
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences
French Nobel laureates
French physicists
Laser researchers
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Nobel laureates in Physics
Officers of the Legion of Honour
People from Ardèche
Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni
University of Michigan faculty