Chirped pulse amplification: 5 uses for a Nobel Prize–winning technology
Lindsey Valich
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Senior Communications Specialist 
What to know
- Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for producing extremely powerful, ultrashort laser pulses.
- Developed by researchers at the University of Rochester in the 1980s, CPA earned Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) and Gérard Mourou the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- The technology enables advances in laser eye surgery, precision manufacturing, cancer research, and experiments exploring the fundamental properties of matter.
Developed at the University of Rochester, chirped pulse amplification makes ultrashort, high-intensity laser pulses possible, with applications in medicine, manufacturing, and scientific research.
Every time you pick up your smartphone, you are holding a product made possible, in part, by a Nobel Prize–winning technology developed at the University of Rochester.
That invention is chirped pulse amplification (CPA), a technique that makes it possible to generate extremely powerful laser pulses lasting just a tiny fraction of a second.
Developed by Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) and Gérard Mourou at URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), CPA revolutionized laser technology and opened the door to applications ranging from vision correction to the study of stars and nuclear fusion.
What is chirped pulse amplification, and how does it work?
Chirped pulse amplification is a technique that allows scientists to increase the energy of an ultrashort laser pulse without damaging the equipment used to amplify it.
The process involves three basic steps:
- Stretch: An ultrashort laser pulse is stretched out in time, reducing its peak power.
- Amplify: The stretched pulse is amplified to increase its energy without damaging the laser system.
- Compress: The amplified pulse is compressed back into an extremely short burst, producing exceptionally high peak power.
The result is a laser pulse that delivers enormous power with extraordinary precision.
“CPA is a state-of-the-art technique that’s still being used to push lasers to higher and higher intensities,” says Jonathan Zuegel, a professor of optics at URochester and senior scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE).
“We put a lot of energy into short pulses that are useful for scientific experiments, but they’re also useful for industry, medicine, and commercial applications. It’s really a fundamental advance.”
How is chirped pulse amplification used today?
From medical procedures to manufacturing and fundamental physics, chirped pulse amplification has transformed what scientists and engineers can accomplish with lasers.
1. Improving cancer treatments
Proton beam therapy is an established cancer treatment that uses beams of protons to deliver radiation precisely to tumors while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
CPA could help advance this technology.
Researchers are investigating whether high-intensity lasers could generate proton beams suitable for cancer treatment, potentially making proton therapy systems smaller, less expensive, and more accessible.
2. Making laser eye surgery more precise
CPA enables ultrafast lasers that can make exceptionally precise incisions in delicate eye tissue.
In procedures such as LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis), femtosecond lasers can create a thin flap in the cornea without the need for a mechanical blade, minimizing damage to surrounding tissue.
Strickland and Mourou were among five researchers honored with the 2022 Golden Goose Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their contributions to the development of bladeless LASIK.
Wayne Knox, a professor of optics at URochester, has also explored applications of ultrafast lasers for noninvasive vision correction and modifying contact and intraocular lenses.
“We are using CPA for the next generation of vision correction,” Knox says.
3. Manufacturing smartphones and other commercial products
Chirped pulse amplification has helped transform precision manufacturing, including the machining of glass used in smartphone screens.
By concentrating energy into extremely short pulses, ultrafast lasers can cut, shape, and process delicate materials with exceptional accuracy.
“Industry has adapted CPA for a range of laser materials processing techniques, including machining of brittle materials like the cover glass used in smartphones,” says Dustin Froula, a URochester physicist and LLE division director.
4. Recreating extreme conditions found in stars and planets
High-intensity lasers made possible by CPA let scientists study matter under extraordinary temperatures and pressures, including conditions resembling those found deep inside stars and planets.
At URochester’s Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures, researchers investigate how matter behaves under these extreme conditions.
“This CPA capability allows us to generate huge quantities of charged particles and light for heating matter to stellar interior conditions so fast that the material does not know what happened,” says Gilbert “Rip” Collins, a URochester professor of mechanical engineering and of physics. The technology, he adds, can also “take ultrafast snapshots of planet goo recreated in a laser compression laboratory experiment; and much more.”
5. Capturing ultrafast processes and advancing fusion research
CPA allows scientists to generate powerful bursts of light and particles that can reveal processes occurring on extraordinarily short timescales.
These capabilities help researchers investigate atomic behavior, develop new materials, and study the physics of nuclear fusion.
“We use these kinds of ultrafast lasers to study fusion energy because CPA allows us to take pictures of the implosions we use to generate fusion,” says Ricardo Betti, a URochester professor of mechanical engineering and of physics and chief scientist at the LLE.
Why did chirped pulse amplification win the Nobel Prize?
In 2018, Strickland and Mourou shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking method of generating high-intensity, ultrashort optical pulses.
Their research, conducted at URochester and published in 1985, became the foundation of Strickland’s 1988 doctoral dissertation.
By overcoming a fundamental limitation in laser amplification, their invention enabled generations of increasingly powerful laser systems—and helped establish new possibilities for medicine, industry, and scientific discovery.
Could a laser push the limits of physics?
Four decades after chirped pulse amplification was pioneered at the University of Rochester, scientists are building on the Nobel Prize–winning breakthrough to push laser technology to new extremes. Discover how NSF OPAL, a next-generation laser facility now in design, could help researchers explore some of the biggest mysteries in physics.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on October 4, 2018. It has been updated and republished with new information and a video explaining how chirped pulse amplification works and its applications.
