The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 to John Clarke (University of California, Berkeley), Michel H Devoret (Yale University; University of California, Santa Barbara), and John M Martinis (University of California, Santa Barbara) for their experiments demonstrating quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electrical circuit.
Their work represents a significant advancement in understanding quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale. The trio’s experiments, conducted in 1984 and 1985, used a superconducting circuit system to show that quantum mechanical properties can be observed in systems large enough to be held in the hand.
The Nobel laureates will share an award of 11 million Swedish Krona.
“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises,” said Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
Notably, the experiments involved a system built with superconductors and a non-conductive material, known as a Josephson junction. This setup allowed the researchers to observe the quantum effects of tunnelling, where the system escaped a zero-voltage state and transitioned to a state with measurable voltage.
The work demonstrated that the system’s energy levels are quantised, which was predicted by quantum mechanics.
Their work has made significant contributions to the field of quantum technology, which is foundational to digital technologies, including the transistors used in microchips.
The discoveries could lead to the development of new technologies and provide opportunities for advancing the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers and quantum sensors.
Earlier in 2014, Martinis and his team were onboarded by the Google Quantum AI Lab in a multimillion-dollar deal to build a quantum computer using superconducting qubits.
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