A British scientist was among three awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday.
John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M Martinis won the coveted prize for research on quantum tunnelling that is advancing digital technology.
The three physicists share the 11m Swedish kronor (about £871,400) prize announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
“To put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life,” Professor Clarke told reporters after being told he had won.
He paid tribute to the other two laureates, saying “their contributions are just overwhelming”.
Professor Clarke added: “Our discovery in some ways is the basis of quantum computing. Exactly at this moment where this fits in is not entirely clear to me.”
However, he said: “One of the underlying reasons that cellphones work is because of all this work.”
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Dr Mark Mitchison, a quantum expert from King’s College London’s physics department, said many modern developments in quantum computing build on their discoveries.
According to the Nobel committee, the laureates’ work in the 1980s is still helping to develop “the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors”.
“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,” said Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
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The 100-year-old field of quantum mechanics deals with the seemingly impossible subatomic world where switches can be on and off at the same time and parts of atoms tunnel through what seems like impenetrable barriers.
The prize-winning trio’s work helped take that into the larger world, where it has the potential to supercharge computing and communications.
“This year’s Nobel Prize honoured the creation of an electrical circuit that behaves quantum mechanically when cooled to just above absolute zero,” said Dr Eleanor Crane, quantum computing expert at King’s College London.
“This discovery opened the door to studying quantum mechanics on a macroscopic scale.
“It also laid the groundwork for technologies such as superconducting quantum bits-used by companies like Google, IBM, Alice and Bob, IQM, and Oxford Quantum Circuits to make quantum computers.
“However, this Nobel Prize is not a statement about which quantum computing platform is the most promising – that is still an open question, with very impressive demonstrations being made in other platforms like neutral atoms and trapped ions.”
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This is the 119th time the prize has been awarded, with artificial intelligence pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton winning last year for helping to create the building blocks of machine learning.
On Monday, Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries about the immune system.
