Strickland and Gérard Mourou published their landmark paper on chirped pulse amplification, founding modern ultrafast laser science.
On December 1, 1985, Donna Strickland, then a doctoral student at the University of Rochester, published her first major scientific paper alongside her advisor Gérard Mourou. The paper described a novel technique called chirped pulse amplification (CPA), which allowed short laser pulses to be stretched, amplified, and then recompressed without damaging the amplifying medium.
Before CPA, attempts to amplify ultrashort laser pulses to higher intensities were limited because the amplifying materials would be destroyed by the sheer power of the concentrated light. Strickland and Mourou's innovation solved this problem by stretching the pulse in time to reduce peak power during amplification, then compressing it back down afterward — dramatically increasing the achievable intensity of laser systems.
This 1985 publication became one of the most cited and consequential papers in the history of applied physics. CPA later became the standard method used in industrial and medical laser applications, including LASIK eye surgery and precision material processing. Though its true significance would not be recognized by the Nobel Committee for another 33 years, this paper represents the true genesis of the achievement that eventually earned Strickland the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018.