Pierre Agostini | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Agostini in 2023 | |
| Born | (1941-07-23)23 July 1941 (age 84) |
| Alma mater | Aix-Marseille University (BEd,MAS,PhD) |
| Known for | Above-threshold ionization RABBITT |
| Awards | Gay-Lussac–Humboldt Prize (2003) William F. Meggers Award (2007) Nobel Prize in Physics (2023) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Attosecond physics |
| Institutions | CEA Saclay Ohio State University |
| Thesis | Appareillage permettant la réalisation de filtres multidiélectriques UV: Étude des couches Sb2O3 cryolithe (1967) |
| Website | physics |
Pierre Agostini (French pronunciation:[pjɛʁaɡɔstini]; born 23 July 1941) is a Frenchexperimental physicist andEmeritus professor at theOhio State University in the United States, known for his pioneering work in strong-field laser physics andattosecond science.[1] He is especially known for the observation ofabove-threshold ionization and the invention of thereconstruction of attosecond beating by interference of two-photon transitions (RABBITT) technique[2] for characterization ofattosecond light pulses. He was jointly awarded the 2023Nobel Prize in Physics.[3]
Pierre Agostini was born inTunis, in theFrench protectorate of Tunisia, in 1941.[4] He obtained hisbaccalauréat at thePrytanée national militaire school in 1959 inLa Flèche, France.[5]
Agostini studied physics atAix-Marseille University, where he subsequently received aB.Ed. degree (licence d'enseignement) in physics in 1961, and anM.A.S. degree (diplôme d'études approfondies) in 1962. In 1968 he completed adoctoral degree there, on multilayer dielectric filters for the ultraviolet, titledAppareillage permettant la réalisation de filtres multidiélectriques UV : Étude des couches Sb2O3.[6][7][8]
After his doctorate, he became a researcher atCEA Saclay in 1969 and stayed there until 2002.[7][8] During this time, Agostini worked in the lab of Gérard Mainfray and Claude Manus, where he researched on multiphoton ionization using the powerful lasers there. They are the first to observeabove-threshold ionization in 1979 inxenon gas.[9][10][11]
In 2001, Agostini and his team at CEA Saclay along with Harm Geert Muller at the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), using an advanced laser at theLaboratoire d'Optique Appliquée [fr], managed to create a train of pulses each 250attoseconds in duration. By recombining the ultrashortultraviolet pulses with the originalinfrared light they created an interference effect that allowed him to characterize the length and repetition rate of the pulses.[12][13]
Agostini was a visiting scientist at theBrookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S. state ofNew York between 2002 and 2004, where he worked inLouis F. DiMauro's group.[14] He became professor of physics at theOhio State University (OSU) in 2005 and ran a laboratory jointly withLouis F. DiMauro who moved a year earlier to OSU.[15] Agostini became Emeritus professor at OSU in 2018.[16]
Agostini received the Gustave Ribaud prize in 1995 from theFrench Academy of Sciences.[17] In 2003, he received theGay-Lussac–Humboldt Prize[18] and the Joop Los fellowship from the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM),[7] he also received theWilliam F. Meggers Award in Spectroscopy in 2007 from theOptical Society of America (OSA), and is aHumboldt Fellow. He was elected a Fellow of OSA in 2008 “for leadership in the development of innovative experiments providing major insights into the dynamics of the nonlinear response of atoms and molecules submitted to strong infrared laser pulses.”[7]
In 2023, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter" along withAnne L'Huillier andFerenc Krausz.[3]
