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Source: The post is based on the article “Nobel Prize in Physics 2023: What the three scientists have been awarded for” published in “Indian Express” on 3rd October 2023
What is the News?
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.
What are Electrons?
Source: AFP
An atom is a tiny unit into which matter can be divided.
Atom is composed of a nucleus of protons and neutrons and electrons that travel around this nucleus.Electrons move so fast that it is impossible to observe them in real time.
Before being able to study them directly, scientists understood the properties of electrons through averages.
Why is it difficult to capture electrons?
Electrons move at a whopping 43 miles a second. This speed has long made them impossible to study.For capturing them, it requires extremely short pulses of light such as attosecond.
What is attosecond?
An attosecond is an astonishingly short unit of time, equivalent to one quintillionth of a second, or 10 to the power of 18 seconds.
To put this into perspective, if a second were stretched to cover the entire age of the universe, which is approximately 13.8 billion years, an attosecond would be just a fraction of a second.
What did the three Nobel Prize winners in Physics develop?
The three Nobel Prize winners Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier demonstrated a way to generate attosecond pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.
Why is this work important?
Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons.
One possible application is to study molecular-level changes in blood, to identify diseases.
A better understanding of how electrons move and transmit energy can also help in creating more efficient electronic gadgets.
