Find out what happens when you turn the lights ALL THE WAY UP?!

Everyone knows that lasers can be bright. From Goldfinger to Star Wars, intense lasers carry a ‘death ray’ reputation in popular culture. But what is intense light, anyway? How can you even make or direct something that will blast any material that it encounters to smithereens? And how can something as ephemeral as a ray of light turn into an irresistible force? Is there an ultimate intensity, a brightest light? We’ll answer these questions, and more.

About the Speaker

Philip Bucksbaum is an atomic physicist whose main research interest is fundamental light-matter interactions, and especially the control of quantum systems using ultrafast laser fields. Bucksbaum is a visiting scholar at the Stanford Department of Applied Physics and at SSRL. His permanent position at the University of Michigan is Otto Laporte Collegiate Professor of Physics. He is Director of FOCUS, the NSF Center for the Advancement of Frontiers in Optical Coherent Ultrafast Science, and editor of VJUltrafast, the APS Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science.