The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier.
This was awarded for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electro dynamics in matter.
Their research has given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules.
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 experiments granted the Laureates to observe extremely brief events that transpire in a few tenths of attoseconds—a quintillionth (10−18) of a second.
An attosecond is so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the birth of the universe.
These brief pulses of light can be used to provide images of what occurs inside atoms and molecules.