Congratulations to Ferenc Krausz on the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Anne l'Huillier, Pierre Agostini, and Ferenc Krausz for their work on the generation of attosecond laser pulses. Such short light pulses can be used to study and possibly influence electron dynamics in chemical processes and biological samples, for example.

For this purpose, Ferenc Krausz has excited noble gases by multiphoton ionization with infrared laser pulses of a length of a few femtoseconds (10-15 s), which then emit X-ray flashes of extremely short duration. The pulse durations of the X-ray flashes are in the low attosecond range (10-18 s).

The noble gas atoms thus stimulated then emit low energy X-ray radiation by "high order harmonic generation, (HHG)". The energy and spatial distribution of this radiation were measured by a pnCCD high-speed camera with a readout frequency of 1 kHz.

The work on HHG of low-energy X-rays (extreme ultraviolet radiation) was already supported by PNSensor at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in the year 2002 [1]. After the appointment of Ferenc Krausz as director, this field was intensively developed, laying the foundation for the generation of ultrashort light pulses. In both cases, the pnCCD camera developed by PNSensor was very important [2].


Literatur:

[1] High-order harmonic generation at a repetition rate of 100 kHz
Lindner, F.; Stremme, W.; Schätzel, M.G.; Grasbon, F.; Paulus, G.G.; Walther, H.; Hartmann, R.; Strüder, L. Physical Review A, vol. 68, Issue 1, id. 013814, 2003
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.68.013814

[2] Subfemtosecond K-Shell Excitation with a Few-Cycle Infrared Laser Field
Marcus, Gilad; Helml, Wolfram; Gu, Xun; Deng, Yunpei; Hartmann, Robert; Kobayashi, Takayoshi; Strueder, Lothar; Kienberger, Reinhard; Krausz, Ferenc Physical Review Letters, vol. 108, Issue 2, id. 023201, 2012
DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.108.023201


Weblinks:
Press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences


Ferenc Krausz
Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach