Anne L’Huillier

Anne L’Huillier is a French-Swedish physicist whose research on high-harmonic generation helped establish attosecond science. She shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for experimental methods producing attosecond pulses of light.

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Attosecond physics: A field that studies and controls electronic motion on timescales of attoseconds. L’Huillier’s high-harmonic research helped create the experimental foundations of this field.
High-harmonic generation: A nonlinear process in which intense laser light interacting with a gas produces light at higher frequencies. L’Huillier’s experiments revealed how this process can generate coherent extreme-ultraviolet radiation.
Lund University: A public research university in Lund, Sweden, founded in 1666. L’Huillier has conducted much of her high-harmonic and attosecond research there.
Ferenc Krausz: A Hungarian-Austrian physicist who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for methods generating attosecond pulses. Krausz’s pulse-generation experiments complemented L’Huillier’s work on the underlying harmonic process.
Attosecond pulse: A burst of light lasting on the order of 10⁻¹⁸ seconds. Her research helped make these ultrashort light bursts possible.
Three-step model: A model of high-harmonic generation in which an electron tunnels, accelerates, and recombines with its parent ion. It explains the electron dynamics behind the harmonic emission she helped investigate.
French National Centre for Scientific Research: France’s national public research organization, known by the acronym CNRS. L’Huillier began her scientific career as a researcher at CNRS.
Lars J. K. K. Madsen: A Danish theoretical physicist known for research on strong-field and attosecond physics. His theoretical work has helped explain high-harmonic generation and ultrafast electron dynamics.
2023 Nobel Prize in Physics: The physics Nobel awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier for methods producing attosecond light pulses. The prize recognized the experimental methods her work helped establish.
Above-threshold ionization: The absorption of more photons than the minimum needed to ionize an atom. Its electron dynamics are closely related to the strong-field processes that generate high harmonics.