Overview

• The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences named John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis as laureates for demonstrating macroscopic quantum tunnelling and discrete energy levels in an electrical circuit.
• In 1984–1985 they used superconducting circuits with Josephson junctions to observe a zero‑voltage state escaping via tunnelling and energy absorption in quantised steps.
• The Nobel committee said the work enables opportunities for quantum cryptography, quantum computers and high‑precision quantum sensors.
• Clarke, a British physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, called the news “the surprise of my life,” while Devoret works at Yale and Martinis at UC Santa Barbara.
• The prize will be formally awarded on December 10 and carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor.