Physics Professor Howard Milchberg to Receive APS Schawlow Prize in Laser Science
University of Maryland Physics Professor Howard Milchberg has been awarded the 2024 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, presented by the American Physical Society (APS), for “pioneering contributions in the fields of plasma optics, guiding the ultra-intense laser beams, and developing compact, high-gradient laser-driven accelerators.” Milchberg also holds joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics.
Milchberg has had numerous research successes recently including:
- Record all-optical laser-based acceleration of electrons to 5 billion electron volts, published in the September 2022 issue of Physical Review X.
- Demonstration of a continuously operating optical fiber made of thin air by creating an optical guiding method using auxiliary ultrashort laser pulses to sculpt fiber optic waveguides in the air itself. This allows high-power laser beams to be guided without using common optical fibers made of strands of glass that can be damaged by high-power beams. This experiment was published in the April 2023 issue of Optica.
- Setting a record with a nearly 50-meter-long air waveguide in an effort to use pulsed air waveguiding to temporarily transfigure thin air into a fiber optic cable, published in the January 2023 issue of Physical Review X.
- Recognition for his Lab for Intense Laser-Matter Interactions by being chosen as one of 10 LaserNetUS nodes, which provides funding for collaboration with U.S. and international researchers.
The APS Honors Program recognizes outstanding achievements in research, education and public service. The Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science “recognizes contributions to basic research using lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interactions with light.”
Written by Darcy Long
