Advances in studying the dynamics of electrons in matter at speeds of trillionths of a second have been recognized with this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.
As announced by the Nobel Foundation, the award has been awarded to the Frenchwoman Anne L'Huilier, from the University of Lund (Sweden); Pierre Agostini, also French, from Ohio State University (USA); and the Hungarian Ferenc Krausz, from the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and the University of Munich (Germany).
They have been awarded "for experimental methods that generate attosecond light pulses for the study of the dynamics of electrons in matter", according to the verdict of the jury of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
His experiments "have given humanity new tools to explore the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules," highlights the Swedish academy in the statement announcing the award. "They 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."
Their contributions have opened the way to investigate such ephemeral phenomena that were previously impossible to study. An attosecond, which is equivalent to one trillionth of a second (or 10 to the minus 18 power), "is so short that there are as many attoseconds in a second as there have been seconds since the birth of the Universe," notes the Swedish Academy of Sciences.
"We can now open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons. The next step will be to use them," said Eva Olsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
The processes that occur on a scale of attoseconds "are the fastest that humans can visualize", emphasizes Lluís Torner, director of the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Castelldefels, where research is carried out in this field. "This is the scale at which chemical reactions begin."
Regarding the possible applications of this advance, Torner warns that "they will not be immediate because we are still in a basic research phase."
Looking ahead, the Swedish Academy anticipates that attosecond physics will have applications in electronics, where "it is important to understand and control how electrons behave in a material."
It may also have applications in the field of medical diagnostics because "attosecond pulses can be used to identify different molecules." Ferenc Krausz, one of the winners, has begun to investigate possible biological applications of attosecond physics.
The research teams of Krausz and Agostini were the first to demonstrate in 2001 that it was possible to produce attosecond pulses of light. To achieve this, it was necessary to develop an innovative laser light technology that would allow us to overcome the frontier of femtoseconds (which are equivalent to one thousand attoseconds, or 10 to the power minus 15).
Anne L'Huilier's research in previous years had laid the foundations for that advance. In the “series of seminal works in the mid- to late 90s,” as described by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, physicist Maciej Lewenstein, from the ICFO photonics institute, played a central role.
Following tradition, the Nobel Prize in Physics was announced on Tuesday of the first week of October and, like every year, it is the second that has been made public. Yesterday, the Medicine award was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the development of messenger RNA vaccines, which were key to mitigating the impact of the covid pandemic. In the next few days the winners of Chemistry will be announced (tomorrow, Wednesday); Literature (Thursday 5); Peace (Friday the 6th); and Economy (Monday 9).
The winners will receive the award in a ceremony that will be held, as every year, on December 10 in Stockholm (Sweden), coinciding with the date on which Alfred Nobel died.
Since the Physics prize began to be awarded in 1901, 225 people have won it, of which only five are women. Of them, three have done so in the last five years: the Canadian Donna Strickland for her photonics research in 2018; the American Andrea Ghez for the discovery of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way in 2020; and the French Anne L'Huilier, awarded this year.
