Ultrafast light pulses scoop Nobel prize in physics

The 2023 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for their work on techniques that enable scientists to track the movement of electrons on ultrafast timescales. The Nobel committee that pick the winners cited the trio’s work on ‘experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter’.

Announcing the award, Eva Olsson who chairs the Nobel committee for physics, noted that the techniques ‘open the door to the world of electrons’. ‘Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons,’ she added. ‘The next step will be utilising them.’