NOBEL LAUREATES OF PHYSICS 2023: Unveiling

the minds shaping our future

3 October 2023
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in
Physics to
❖ Pierre Agostini
The Ohio State
University,
Columbus, USA
❖ Ferenc Krausz
Max Planck Institute
of Quantum Optics,
Garching and
Ludwig-
Maximilians-
Universität München,
Germany
❖ Anne L’Huillier
Lund University,
Sweden

“for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study
of electron dynamics in matter”. The three scientists shared the prize equally.
What is Attosecond Physics?
Attosecond physics, also known as attophysics or attosecond science, is a branch
of physics that focuses on extremely short time scales, specifically on the order of
attoseconds, which are one billionth of a billionth of a second (i.e. 10−18 s). This field
emerged with the development of attosecond laser pulses, which are pulses of light with
durations on the attosecond scale. This discovery to generate attosecond pulses of light has
created a major breakthrough in shaping our understanding of this branch of physics and
paved the way to look deep into electron movements inside an atom.

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How small an attosecond is!
An attosecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) that equals to
1×10−18 of a second (one quintillionth of a second).

In numbers it is amazing that if we take the ratio of an attosecond to 1 second, it will be equal
to the ratio of 1 second to the age of universe expressed in seconds. Incredibly small number
it is, this time scale has led us to dive into the world of electrons, which have given humanity
new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules. The work of the
three scientists 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 EXPERIMENT

In the world of electrons, changes occur in a few tenths of an attosecond – an

attosecond is so short that there are as many in one second as there have been
seconds since the birth of the universe.

The laureates’ experiments have produced pulses of light so short that they are
measured in attoseconds, thus demonstrating that these pulses can be used to
provide images of processes inside atoms and molecules.

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In 1987, Anne L’Huillier discovered that many different overtones of light arose
when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas. Each overtone is a
light wave with a given number of cycles for each cycle in the laser light. They are
caused by the laser light interacting with atoms in the gas; it gives some electrons
extra energy that is then emitted as light. Anne L’Huillier has continued to explore
this phenomenon, laying the ground for subsequent breakthroughs.

In 2001, Pierre Agostini succeeded in producing and investigating a series of

consecutive light pulses, in which each pulse lasted 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 that lasted 650 attoseconds.

Applications of this technique

There are potential applications of the findings in many different areas. In
electronics, it is important to understand and control how electrons behave in
a material.
The field also holds promise in areas such as a new in-vitro diagnostic
technique to detect characteristic molecular traces of diseases in blood
samples.
Hungarian-born Krausz, whose team generated the first ultra-fast pulses in
the early 2000s, has likened attosecond physics to a fast-shutter camera
where the short light flashes allow a freeze frame look within the microcosm.
Some other applications are:

➢ Localization control of electrons in a molecule.

➢ Ultrafast switching from insulator to conductor.
➢ Molecular fingerprinting applied to biological samples
(Blood plasma).