Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to 3 Scientists for Work on Electrons
The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier on Tuesday for their experiments that “have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules.”
Electrons’ movements in atoms and molecules are so quick that they are measured in “attoseconds,” and the experiments conducted by the three scientists demonstrated that attosecond pulses could be observed and measured, the awarding committee said.
Eva Olsson, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said at a news conference on Tuesday that attosecond science “allows us to address fundamental questions” such as the time scale of the photoelectric effect for which Albert Einstein received the 1921 Nobel in Physics.
An attosecond is a millionth of a trillionth of a second. The number of them in one second is the same as the number of seconds that have elapsed since the universe came into existence, 13.8 billion years ago, according the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the physics prize.
“Now that the attosecond world has become accessible” the Nobel committee wrote on the social platform X, “these short bursts of light can be used to study the movements of electrons.”
Who are the winners?
Pierre Agostini is an emeritus professor at Ohio State University.
Ferenc Krausz is director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany and a professor of experimental physics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Anne L’Huillier is a professor at Lund University in Sweden.
Why did the committee say they were receiving the prize?
“Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier 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 awarding committee said.
The laureates’ contributions have enabled the investigation of processes so rapid that they were “previously impossible to follow,” it added.
Read more! https://news.osu.edu/ohio-states-agostini-wins-nobel-prize-in-physics/
Read some more! Ohio State News (osu.edu)
Further reading on Science.org: Ultrafast light experiments win physics Nobel | Science | AAAS
Article from WOSU: Retired Ohio State professor awarded Nobel Prize in physics | WOSU News
