Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on October 3, 2023, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced from Stockholm. Scientists have been recognized for their experimental methods to generate attosecond pulses of light, giving us tools to study electrons within atoms and molecules.
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This October 3, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to the three scientists whose work allowed the investigation of processes so short and fast that they were previously impossible to study, such as the movement of electrons.
The discoveries of Anne L’Huillier in 1987 and Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz in 2001 have made it possible to produce light pulses so short that they are measured in attoseconds (one trillionth of a second), demonstrating that these pulses can be used to generate images of what happens inside atoms and molecules.
“Now we can open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand electron-governed mechanisms. The next step will be to use them,” said Eva Olsson, president of the Nobel Physics committee.
The discovery of the laureates has applications in different areas of science: in medicine, attosecond pulses can be used to identify different molecules and contribute to diagnoses. In electronics, they help understand and control the behavior of electrons in a material.
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