Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”. This year Nobel Laureates in Physics 2023 are being recognised for their experiments, which have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules. Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.

Fast-moving events flow into each other when perceived by humans, just like a film that consists of still images is perceived as continual movement. If we want to investigate really brief events, we need special technology. In the world of electrons, changes occur in a few tenths of an attosecond, an attosecond is so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the birth of the universe.

The laureates’ experiments have produced pulses of light so short that they are measured in attoseconds, thus demonstrating that these pulses can be used to provide images of processes inside atoms and molecules.

What is attoseconds?

An attosecond is an astonishingly short unit of time, equivalent to one quintillionth of a second, or 10^18 seconds (1 attosecond equals 0.000000000000000001 second).

About the Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier

Pierre Agostini (The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA)

Pierre Agostini. PhD 1968 from Aix-Marseille University, France. Professor at The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.

Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany)

Ferenc Krausz, born 1962 in Mór, Hungary. PhD 1991 from Vienna University of Technology, Austria. Director at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching and Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.

Anne L’Huillier (Lund University, Sweden)

Anne L’Huillier, born 1958 in Paris, France. PhD 1986 from University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, France. Professor at Lund University, Sweden.

Prize amount: 11 million Swedish kronor, to be shared equally between the laureates.

About the Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 116 times to 222 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2022. John Bardeen is the only laureate who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, in 1956 and 1972. This means that a total of 221 individuals have received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Click on the links to get more information.

Physics was the prize area which Alfred Nobel mentioned first in his will from 1895. At the end of the nineteenth century, many people considered physics as the foremost of the sciences, and perhaps Nobel saw it this way as well. His own research was also closely tied to physics.

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.