Anne Geneviève L'Huillier (; born 16 August 1958) is a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. She is a professor of

atomic physics Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned wit ...

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. She leads an attosecond physics group which studies the movements of

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

s in real time, which is used to understand chemical reactions on the atomic level. Her experimental and theoretical research are credited with laying the foundation for the field of attochemistry. In 2003 she and her group beat the world record for the shortest laser pulse, of 170

attosecond An attosecond (abbreviated as as) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10−18 or 1⁄1 000 000 000 000 000 000 (one quintillionth) of a second. An attosecond is to a second, as a second is to approximately 31.69 ...

s. L'Huillier became a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 2004. She has received various physics awards including the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2022 and the

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

in 2023.

Life

Education

Anne L'Huillier was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1958. She was awarded a double

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, but switched for her doctorate degree to

experimental physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and o ...

Pierre and Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...

. Her dissertation was on multiple multiphoton

ionization Ionization or ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive Electric charge, charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged at ...

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

fields of high intensity. She carried out her dissertation research at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), near Paris.

Career

As a post-doctoral student, L'Huillier worked at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, and at the University of Southern California in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 1986, L'Huillier obtained a permanent position as a researcher at the CEA, at the Saclay site. In 1992, she took part in an experiment in

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

, where one of the first

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

solid-state laser A solid-state laser is a laser that uses a active laser medium, gain medium that is a solid, rather than a liquid as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas lasers. Semiconductor-based lasers are also in the solid state, but are generally considered as ...

systems for femtosecond pulses in Europe had been installed. In 1994 she moved to Sweden, where she was appointed at

as a lecturer in 1995 and a professor in 1997. She also serves as governing board member at the Institut d’optique, France.

Research

L'Huillier's research involves experimental and theoretical aspects of high harmonic generation in gases, which corresponded to extremely short light pulses in the

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

spectral range, lasting tens or hundreds of attoseconds. In 1987, L’Huillier first observed that gases like

argon Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...

would react to a laser by becoming excited and emitting additional radiation or

overtones An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...

, at various multiples of the frequency of laser. In 1991, L'Huillier in collaboration with Kenneth Schafer and Kenneth Kulander presented numerical simulations of the time-dependent

Schrödinger equation The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a non-relativistic quantum-mechanical system. Its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of quantum mechanics. It is named after E ...

in order to understand the generation of high-order harmonics. They first predicted the shape of the high harmonics spectrum and the phase-matching conditions. In 1994,

Maciej Lewenstein Maciej Lewenstein (born September 21, 1955 in Warsaw), is a Polish theoretical physicist, currently an ICREA professor at ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Castelldefels near Barcelona. He is an author of over 800 scientific artic ...

, L’Huiller and

Paul Corkum Paul Bruce Corkum (born October 30, 1943) is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science., as published in '' Physics in Canada'', 65(2) 58. He holds a joint University of Ottawa– NRC chair in attosecond photoni ...

presented a full quantum theory of high harmonic generation. L'Huillier uses attosecond sources to study ultrafast dynamics of electrons in atomic and molecular systems. In 2003 her group beat the world record for the shortest laser pulse, lasting 170

s. These attosecond sources are considered the world's fastest cameras, using extremely short pulses of light to measure electrons as they move or change in energy. L’Huillier's methods for studying and manipulating electrons using light have pioneered the field of attochemistry as they allow the study electronic processes during chemical reactions. In 2010, an experiment led by

Ferenc Krausz Ferenc Krausz (born 17 May 1962) is a Hungaro-Austrian physicist working in Attosecond physics, attosecond science. He is a director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and a professor of experimental physics at the Ludwig Maximilian U ...

at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, highlighted a discrepancy between theory and experimental results concerning

photoemission The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physic ...

delays in

neon Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...

atoms. L'Huillier group in Lund solved this problem in 2017 by experimentally uncovering the contribution of shake-up electrons. By correcting for this effect L'Huillier group found an excellent agreement with theory.

Honors and awards

L'Huillier was on the Nobel Committee for Physics between 2007 and 2015, and has been a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences since 2004. In 2003, she received the . In 2011 she received a UNESCO L'Oréal Award. In 2013, she was awarded the , the and an Honorary Degree at

Université Pierre et Marie Curie Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...

(UPMC), Paris. She was elected a foreign associate of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 2018. One year later, in 2019, she was recognized with the Prize for Fundamental Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics, announced by the European Physical Society. Anne L'Huillier is a fellow member of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

and Optica. In 2021 L'Huillier was awarded the Optical Society of America Max Born Award for "pioneering work in ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics, realizing and understanding high harmonic generation and applying it to time-resolved imaging of electron motion in atoms and molecules". In 2022 she received the Wolf Prize in Physics for "pioneering contributions to ultrafast laser science and attosecond physics" jointly with

and

. Also for 2022, the three were awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences. She also received the French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

the same year. In September 2023, she received the Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis for "high harmonic generation and attosecond physics." In October 2023, she was awarded the

, jointly with Krausz and Pierre Agostini for "for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter". In November 2023, she received a

doctor honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

from

Paris-Saclay University Paris-Saclay University (, ) is a combined technological research institute and public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical ''grandes écoles,'' as well as several technol ...

. During the ceremony, 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics,

Alain Aspect Alain Aspect (; born 15 June 1947) is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement. Aspect was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, "for experiments with Quantum e ...

was the guest of honor. In March 2024, she received a doctor honoris causa from

University of Bordeaux The University of Bordeaux (, ) is a public research university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and Talence. There are al ...

, and in May from the University of Porto.

Distinctions

* : Royal Order of the Polar Star, Commander Grand Cross (21 March 2024) * :

, Knight (29 December 2022)

Personal life

L'Huillier is married to who is also a professor at Lund University. They have two children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:L'Huillier, Anne 1958 births Academic staff of Lund University École Normale Supérieure alumni Fellows of Optica (society) Fellows of the American Physical Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences French Nobel laureates French women physicists L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates Living people Nobel laureates in Physics Paris-Saclay University alumni Scientists from Paris Swedish Nobel laureates Swedish women physicists Women in optics Women Nobel laureates 21st-century women physicists