Why Did Attosecond Physics Win the NOBEL PRIZE?

Overview

Whenever we open a new window on the universe we discover something new. Whether it's figuring out how to see to greater distances like with telescopes, or down to smaller size-scales like with microscopes, or perhaps expanding our vision to new wavelengths of light or via exotic means such as in neutrinos or gravitational waves. Well, the 2023 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to three physicists for opening just such a new window—but it's not a window to a new size scale or a new mode of seeing—-it’s for a new window in time. It’s for attosecond physics—the billionth of a billionth of a second that represents the timescale of the insides of atoms. This year’s Nobel in physics is for a microscope in time.

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