Three atomic physicists, France’s Pierre Agostini, Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz and French-Swedish Anne L’Huillier have won the 2023 Nobel Prize for “experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”, the award-giving body says.
“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 jury said.
The panel further stated that the trio, “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.”
“The laureates’ contributions have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid they were previously impossible to follow,” it said.
Agostini holds a professorship at Ohio State University in the United States, while Krausz serves as a director at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
L’Huillier, only the fifth woman to receive the Physics Prize since 1901, is a professor at Lund University in Sweden.
She shared with reporters that she was in the midst of teaching a class when she received the call from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,and it “was difficult” to finish the class.
“I am very touched… There are not so many women that get this prize so it’s very, very special,” L’Huillier said.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Alain Aspect from France, John Clauser from the United States, and Austria’s Anton Zeilinger for their groundbreaking contributions to the field of quantum entanglement. This concept was once dismissed by Albert Einstein as “spooky action.”
The trio will collectively receive the award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1 million) and will be presented with the prize by King Carl XVI Gustaf during a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10. This date marks the anniversary of the 1896 passing of scientist Alfred Nobel, who established the prizes in his final will.
Following the Physics Prize, the Chemistry Prize will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the highly anticipated Literature and Peace Prizes on Thursday and Friday respectively.
Concluding the 2023 Nobel season, the Economics Prize — established in 1968 and the only Nobel not outlined in Nobel’s 1895 will — will be revealed on Monday.