The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 is awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier, active in Sweden.
– I am very moved, says the Franco-Swedish professor at the press conference.
The Nobel Prize in Physics goes to a trio: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier. They are rewarded for their experiments around flash lighting, which have led to new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules.
“For experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for studies of electron dynamics in matter,” writes the Nobel Assembly in a press release. An attosecond is one billionth of a billionth of a second. With an exposure time of one attosecond, one can follow the movements of electrons around an atomic nucleus.
Active at Lund University
Anne L’Huillier is French-Swedish and works at Lund University. The Nobel Prize writes on its website that in 1987 she “discovered that a large number of different harmonics of light arose when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas.”
– The award means a lot, it is the most prestigious award. Not many women have received it, so it is very special, she says during the press conference.
Pierre Agostini works at Ohio State University in the USA, while Ferenc Krausz belongs to Ludwig-Maximilians University in Germany.
In 2022, Alain Aspect, France, John Clauser, USA and Anton Zeilinger, Austria, were awarded for showing that very small particles can go their separate ways and end up very far apart, but still stay together.