2023 Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 3 October 2023.

The citation

The citation reads: "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Pierre Agostini was born in 1941 in Tunis, French protectorate of Tunisia (now Tunisia), and is affiliated with The Ohio State University, Columbus. Ferenc Krausz was born in 1962 in Mór, Hungary, and is affiliated with the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich. Anne L'Huillier was born in 1958 in Paris, France, and is affiliated with Lund University, Lund.

Why it matters

An attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. The three physicists found ways to create flashes of light that short, allowing scientists to watch electrons move.

The prize

The prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.