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Pierre Agostini

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Pierre Agostini is a French experimental physicist known for research in ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics. He developed the technique called reconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transitions, commonly abbreviated RABBITT, which made it possible to characterize trains of extremely short light pulses. He shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses for studying electron dynamics in matter.

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What did Pierre Agostini win the 2023 Nobel Prize for?

Pierre Agostini was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for his experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light. These incredibly brief flashes of light allow scientists to capture the movement of electrons inside atoms in real-time.

Who did Pierre Agostini share the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics with?

Agostini shared the award equally with two other physicists: Ferenc Krausz from Hungary and Anne L'Huillier from France. All three researchers independently pioneered different aspects of attosecond physics.

Where did Pierre Agostini conduct his Nobel-winning research?

Agostini conducted much of his pioneering work on attosecond pulses at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Saclay during the early 2000s. His research group successfully produced trains of attosecond pulses in 2001.

What is an "attosecond" in physics?

An attosecond is an extraordinarily short unit of time, equal to one quintillionth (10 to the power of negative 18) of a second. To put it in perspective, there are as many attoseconds in one second as there are seconds in the age of the universe.