Nobel Prize 2023 in Physics goes to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, Anne L’Huillier
Nobel Prize 2023 in Physics: The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to scientists 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."
"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2023 #NobelPrize in Physics to 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," the award-giving body stated.
The three Nobel laureates in physics, Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Huillier, have developed light flashes that are short enough to capture electrons' extraordinarily fast motions.
L'Huillier discovered new phenomena caused by the interaction of laser light with atoms in a gas. Agostini and Krausz demonstrated that this effect can be used to generate shorter light pulses than were previously achievable.
According to a statement on the Nobel Prize's official Twitter account, "Electrons’ movements in atoms and molecules are so rapid that they are measured in attoseconds. An attosecond is to one second as one second is to the age of the universe."
"Now that the attosecond world has become accessible, these short bursts of light can be used to study the movements of electrons. It is now possible to produce pulses down to just a few dozen attoseconds, and this technology is developing all the time."
These pulses have been used to investigate the detailed physics of atoms and molecules, and they have potential applications in areas from electronics to medicine. These can also be used to distinguish between various molecules, as in medical diagnostics.
Pierre Agostini, a 2023 physics laureate, succeeded in producing and analysing a series of consecutive light pulses lasting only 250 attoseconds. At the same time, his co-laureate for 2023, Ferenc Krausz, was working on another type of experiment, one that allowed him to isolate a single light pulse lasting 650 attoseconds.
Anne L'Huillier, this year's #NobelPrize laureate in physics, discovered that when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas, several different overtones of light appeared. Each overtone is a light wave with a predetermined number of cycles for each cycle of laser light.
They are caused by laser light interacting with atoms in the gas, which provides extra energy to some electrons, which is subsequently emitted as light. L'Huillier has continued to investigate this phenomenon, laying the groundwork for future advances.
- ANI
