Physicists Who Explored Tiny Glimpses of Time Win Nobel Prize | Quanta Magazine

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light — flashes that last for one-quintillionth of a second. Such fleeting flashes of light open the door to observing the motion of electrons in atoms.

“The ability to generate attosecond pulses of light has opened the door on a tiny — extremely tiny — timescale. It’s also opened the door to the world of electrons,” Eva Olsson, a physicist at the Chalmers University of Technology, said during the prize announcement.

This article will be updated with additional details throughout the day.

Articles on the Nobel Prizes in Physics from previous years:

2022: Pioneering Quantum Physicists Win Nobel Prize in Physics

2021: Work on Earth’s Climate and Other Complex Systems Earns Nobel Prize in Physics

2020: Physics Nobel Awarded for Black Hole Breakthroughs

2019: Physics Nobel Honors Early Universe and Exoplanet Discoveries

2018: Laser Physicists, Including Third Woman Ever, Win Physics Nobel

2017: LIGO Architects Win Nobel Prize in Physics

2016: Nobel Prize Awarded for Quantum Topology