The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the development of attosecond science – a field that sheds light on the movement of electrons on their natural timescale. Several researchers at the Swiss X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL are recognised in the scientific background to this prize. This is no coincidence. With recent technical developments enabling attosecond and fully coherent X-ray pulses, SwissFEL promises to rapidly advance this emerging research area.
“We can now open the door to the world of electrons. Attosecond physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons. The next step will be utilising them.” So said Eva Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, at the announcement of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The prize was 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”. These breakthrough experimental methods are based on table-top laser systems – that is, laser systems that roughly fit onto an optical table and generate light mainly in the extreme ultraviolet energy range. Yet, in order to truly utilise our new insight into the world of electrons, further technological advances will be important that probe the movements of electrons in a wide variety of functional materials.
The scientific background produced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognises the contributions from several researchers at PSI. There is a unifying theme to these researchers: they all now work at SwissFEL on upgrades that are enabling attosecond X-ray pulses, combining the possibilities of this astounding time resolution with the higher photon energies and higher photon fluxes offered by free electron laser light.
The contributions of these PSI researchers all lay in making the first steps of extending attosecond techniques, first developed in the gas phase, to new phases of matter – liquids and solids.
Read more on PSI website
Image: Contributions of a number of researchers at PSI were recognised in the scientific background to the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics. These researchers include (L to R) Martin Huppert, Adrian Cavalieri and Stefan Neppl, all of whom are now working on the SwissFEL on advances that are enabling attosecond X-ray pulses. Here, they stand in the snow in the beautiful forest that surrounds SwissFEL.
Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer