The prize is awarded with the justification “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for studies of electron dynamics in matter”.
From the beginning, the work of the three Nobel laureates was mostly about understanding how electrons move. Thanks to the development of super-fast flashes of light that last only a few eighths of a second, it became possible to see what happens in them. One eighth of a second corresponds to one billionth of a billionth of a second.
The fifth woman
Swedish-French Anne L’Huillier laid the foundation for attosecond physics in the 1980s. She is the fifth woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Pierre Agostini has produced and examined a series of light pulses, where each pulse was only 250 attoseconds long. Ferenc Krausz has been working on a different kind of experiment, where he managed to isolate a single light pulse that lasted 650 attoseconds.
Medical diagnostics
The work of the three prize winners can be used, among other things, in measuring instruments in chemistry, industry and space research. Attosecond pulses can also be used to identify different molecules, which can be useful in medical diagnostics of, for example, cancer.
In the clip, Victoria Dyring tells more about the extremely fast attosecond pulses.