The work of scientists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier, which used light pulses to explore the behavior of electrons and may improve medical diagnostics and electronics, earned them the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The academy claimed that the trio’s work had provided new methods for examining the world of electrons found inside atoms and molecules, with uses in electronics and medical diagnosis.
“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,” it said in a statement.
Anne, who works at Lund University in Sweden, told a news conference, “It is really a prestigious prize, and I’m so happy to get it. It’s incredible.”
Agostini is a professor at Ohio State University in the United States, and Krausz is a director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences bestows the award, which was increased to 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million) this year.
Physics is the second Nobel Prize to be given this week. On Monday, the medicine prize was received by American colleague Drew Weissman and Hungarian researcher Katalin Kariko for their work on the mRNA molecule, which paved the path for COVID-19 vaccinations.