阿秒光学简史——2023年度诺贝尔物理学奖背后的故事  

A brief history of attosecond optics—The story behind the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023

作　　者：赵昆 Kun Zhao(Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics,Institute of Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China;Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory,Dongguan 523808,China)

机构地区：[1]中国科学院物理研究所,北京凝聚态物理国家研究中心,北京100190 [2]松山湖材料实验室,东莞523808

出　　处：《科学通报》2023年第36期4918-4926,共9页Chinese Science Bulletin

摘　　要：北京时间10月3日,瑞典皇家科学院在斯德哥尔摩宣布,将2023年度诺贝尔物理学奖授予皮埃尔·阿戈斯蒂尼(Pierre Agostini)、费伦茨·克劳斯(Ferenc Krausz)和安妮·吕利耶(Anne L’Huillier),以表彰他们为研究物质中电子动力学而产生阿秒光脉冲的实验方法(for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter).一阿秒是一百亿亿分之一秒(1 as=10–18 s),是极短极小的时间单位.按照诺贝尔奖官网给出的说法,一阿秒之比于一秒相当于一秒之比于宇宙年龄.The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 was awarded jointly 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”.An attosecond is to one second as one second is to the age of the universe,as explained by the Nobel Prize website.“L’Huillier discovered a new effect from laser light’s interaction with atoms in a gas.Agostini and Krausz demonstrated that this effect can be used to create shorter pulses of light than were previously possible.”stated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.In the advancement of ultrafast optics,to acquire details of ultrafast dynamics on the atomic scale requires a physical process as the tool which should take place on a similar time scale if not shorter.Attosecond is the time scale of electron motions in atoms and molecules,so attosecond pulses are the very tool to study electron dynamics.In the history of high-speed photography,which may be regarded as the predecessor of modern ultrafast optics,the stroboscopic photography by Harold Eugene Edgerton is a very nice example of studying fast-moving objects such as bullets.However,this technique only works for macroscopic objects.To study microscopic objects such as atoms or electrons,even shorter strobe light is necessary.Laser’s invention in 1960 provided a new direction to generate shorter light flashes.After a series of technical breakthroughs,laser pulse duration reached the“femtosecond barrier”around the end of the twentieth century.However,even femtosecond pulses are not short enough to study electron dynamics.During the same time,ionization of atoms and molecules under the influence of laser fields,which carries certain similarity with the photoelectric effect explained by Einstein in 1905,has been studied intensively and it was found that the ionized electrons may gain significant energy in the laser field.The above-threshold ionization discovered by Agostini started a long series of studies toward even sh

关 键 词：诺贝尔物理学奖 瑞典皇家科学院 宇宙年龄 费伦茨 诺贝尔奖 克劳斯 阿戈斯蒂 

分 类 号：O4-19[理学—物理]