Scientists Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics for breakthroughs in the field of lasers, the award-giving body said on October 2."The inventions being honoured this year have revolutionised laser physics," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on awarding the nine million Swedish crown ($1 million) prize.
The Nobel committee recognized the scientists for their work in using light to make miniature tools. Dr. Ashkin invented “optical tweezers,”. It uses pressure from a highly focused beam to allow researchers to manipulate microscopic objects and living organisms. Dr. Strickland and Dr. Mourou developed a method of generating high-intensity, ultrashort light pulses. The technology is said to be useful in laser machining. Dr Stickland is the third woman to have received the Nobel prize in Physics after Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963.
