Nobel Prize for Attosecond Pulse Development
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne l’Huillier receive the Nobel Prize “for developing experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for studying electron dynamics in matter.” (Attosecond Pulse Development)
Revolutionizing Electron Dynamics
The three Nobel Laureates in Physics 2023 are being recognized for their experiments, which have provided humanity with new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules. Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.
Groundbreaking Discoveries in Attoscience
Last October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the laureates of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, naming three ground-breaking scientists in the field of Attoscience, Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini, and Ferenc Krausz for “developing experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for studying electron dynamics in matter.”
Congratulations from the ICFOnians
ICFOnians enthusiastically congratulate these friends and colleagues for their landmark achievements and for the highest recognition for their work that this Nobel Prize implies.
Unveiling Processes Inside Atoms and Molecules
The three laureates share this award in equal parts for their experiments that have produced pulses of light so short that they are measured in attoseconds, thus demonstrating that these pulses can provide images of processes inside atoms and molecules.
Anne L’Huillier’s Overtone Discovery
In 1987, Anne L’Huillier discovered that many different overtones of light arise when transmitting infrared laser light through a noble gas. Each overtone is a light wave with a specific number of cycles for each cycle in the laser light. They occur because the laser light interacts with atoms in the gas, giving some electrons extra energy that they then emit as light. Anne L’Huillier has continued to explore this phenomenon, laying the groundwork for subsequent breakthroughs.
Pierre Agostini’s Attosecond Pulse Breakthrough
In 2001, Pierre Agostini succeeded in producing and investigating a series of consecutive light pulses, with each pulse lasting just 250 attoseconds. At the same time, Ferenc Krausz was working with another type of experiment, one that made it possible to isolate a single light pulse lasting 650 attoseconds.
Enabling Unprecedented Investigations
The laureates’ contributions have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid that scientists were previously unable to follow them.
Collaboration and Leadership at ICFO
ICREA Professors at ICFO, Drs. Jens Biegert and Maciej Lewenstein, both lead in this field and collaborate with the laureates both experimentally and theoretically. The 1994 Physical Review A collaboration, noted in the Nobel text, co-authored by Lewenstein, Balcou, Ivanov, L’Huilier, and Corkum, has cited over 5000 times. Similarly, Biegert has made significant contributions through a series of landmark papers in this field, and he has built a world-leading attoscience infrastructure at ICFO, the only one of its kind in Spain. Here, the next generation of attosecond soft x-ray pulses harnesses and applies to advance the frontiers of material physics and chemical imaging.
Contributions of Postdoctoral Researchers
Postdoctoral researchers in the ICFO-Max Plank-Cellex programs over the years, generously funded by Fundación Cellex, have also contributed to the field under the supervision of both ICFO Group Leaders and Prof Ferenc Krausz. Understandably, ICFOnians, fully aware of the significance of this work, have received the news of this year’s award without surprise but with a great deal of enthusiasm.
The Revolutionary Impact of Attosecond Pulses
“Attosecond Pulses of light are a revolutionary tool for basic and applied science since they give us for the first time a camera that is fast enough to acquire crisp images of how and where electrons move,” explains Biegert. “This is important since the motion of electrons determines literally everything, from how a chemical reaction happens, how we metabolize, or how materials and sensors work. Many experimental and theoretical scientists, represented by this year’s laureates, are contributing to this extremely fast-growing new field of science”.
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