APPLAuSE student Joana Alves successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Ultrafast mid-infrared unable sources” on September 19, 2023. Her work was supervised by Gonçalo Figueira, Hugo Pires (both at IPFN/IST) and Jens Biegert (ICFO, Spain).

During her PhD, Joana specialised in the study of ultrafast mid-infrared (wavelengths from 3-8 µm) laser technology, in particular nonlinear amplification of ultrashort pulses and their compression.

She evaluated strategies for achieving few-cycle, millijoule-level pulses in this wavelength region, working with three different laser systems, at the Laboratory for Intense Lasers, IST and at the Attosecond and Ultrafast Optics group at ICFO. One of the main results is the implementation study of a new ultrafast (5-optical-cycles), high energy (5 mJ), 3 μm laser system and an analysis of the main challenges for compressing pulses at this wavelength range.

The PhD jury, consisting of Greg Greetham (STFC, UK), Olivier Chalus (Thales, France), Ana G. Silva (FCT-UNL, Portugal), Gareth Williams (IPFN/IST), Gonçalo Figueira and Luís L. Alves (both Phys. Dept. IST), unanimously highlighted the significant amount of effort, the quality and the high impact of her achievements.

Congratulations, Joana!