In the macrocosm arena: the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the development of quantum technologies

The research, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2025, can become the basis for the development of a new generation of quantum technologies. This includes multi-qubit quantum computers, highly sensitive medical devices, and ultra-precise measurement technology for studying dark matter and gravitational waves. What the award was for and how researchers and design engineers around the world will be able to use these achievements in practice - in the Izvestia article.

Who won the Nobel Prize in Physics?

On October 7, the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics were announced. They were John Clark (Great Britain), Michael Devore (France), John Martinis (USA). According to the website of the Nobel Committee, the award was awarded for the discovery of the effects of "macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and quantization of energy in an electrical circuit."

John Clark (Great Britain), Michael Devore (France), John Martinis (USA) have been announced as winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.

Photo: REUTERS/Tom Little

— One of the main issues in physics is the maximum size of a system in which quantum mechanical effects can manifest themselves. This year's laureates conducted experiments with an electrical circuit, in which they demonstrated both quantum mechanical tunneling and quantization of energy levels in a system large enough to be held in one's hand, the committee explained in an official release.

Previously, quantum phenomena such as tunneling (overcoming an energy barrier without sufficient energy) and quantization (discreteness of permissible energy states) were observed only in the microcosm, explained Vasily Stolyarov, director of the Center for Advanced Methods of Mesophysics and Nanotechnology at MIPT. That is, for individual atoms, electrons, and photons.

—The breakthrough of Clark, Devore and Martinis was that for the first time they experimentally proved that these "strange" quantum effects can also occur with macroscopic objects consisting of billions of atoms," the expert said.

According to him, the key object of the laureates' research was the Josephson contact. This is a structure in which two superconductors are separated by a thin layer of dielectric (insulator). In particular, the researchers have shown that an electric current in such a structure can "tunnel" through an insulating barrier, although classical physics forbids this. Scientists have observed this effect for a system that is billions of times larger than the size of elementary particles.

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"In addition, it has been demonstrated that such macroscopic systems can have discrete energy levels, a property typical of individual quantum objects such as electrons in atoms. These discrete levels are now actively used in superconducting qubits, which form the basis of quantum computers being developed both in Russia and abroad," said Ivan Iorsh, Chief Researcher at the ITMO University Faculty of Physics.

The laureates' research has opened up opportunities for the development of next-generation quantum technologies, including quantum cryptography, computers and sensors, he noted.

What is the significance of the discovery of quantum effects at the macro level?

— Tunneling is one of the key effects of quantum mechanics. In classical mechanics, a particle cannot pass through a region with energy higher than its own, but quantum particles, due to their wave nature, are able to "tunnel" through such barriers. Historically, this effect was theoretically described in the late 1920s by several groups of scientists at once," Alexander Ivanchik, a leading researcher at the A.F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained to Izvestia.

Subsequently, tunneling became the foundation for explaining many phenomena in physics and chemistry. For example, it plays an important role in nuclear reactions and in the operation of semiconductor devices, he explained. Currently, the tunnel effect underlies the operation of many microelectronics devices, including diodes, transistors, memory elements, and sensors.

However, the fundamental importance of the Nobel Prize-winning discovery is precisely due to the fact that quantum effects can manifest at the macroscopic level, the scientist emphasized.

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According to him, in the future, these studies may contribute to the development of quantum teleportation technologies — the instantaneous transfer of a quantum state — between large objects. That is, not only between individual particles, but also between systems that consist of billions of many atoms.

— The award was given for the study of the effects that occur in electrical circuits at very low temperatures. It turns out that in this case, quantum physics begins to play a very important role. Among other things, there is such an effect as electrical conductivity — the ability to transfer energy without losses to resistance," said Alexey Fedorov, head of the scientific group of the Russian Quantum Center, Director of the Institute of Physics and Quantum Engineering at MISIS University, Deputy Chairman of the scientific committee of the National Prize in the Field of Future Technologies "Challenge".

In his opinion, such research has many interesting fundamental directions. In particular, super-sensitive sensors for electromagnetic fields are being made on the basis of superconducting circuits. Such structures are also one of the leading element bases and platforms for quantum computing.

"The task of designers today is to make such macroscopic electronic systems behave like a real crystal of a solid body," explained Vladimir Reshetov, professor at the Institute of Laser and Plasma Technologies.

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The advantage of macroscopic quantum systems is that it can also be affected macroscopically, he explained. For example, to create measuring systems that measure quantum phenomena. The award-winning achievements have given an impetus to the search for new physical effects that can expand the capabilities of quantum technologies.

In particular, they laid the foundation for creating the most accurate magnetic field sensors, which are used in medicine for non—damaging studies of brain activity, in geology for searching for minerals, and in fundamental science for studying dark matter and measuring gravitational waves, he added.

— Key ideas and developments in the field of creating superconducting qubits, multi-qubit quantum coprocessors based on them, and the development of many quantum algorithms were first demonstrated by the Martins group. In addition, Michel Devore's series of pioneering works in the field of quantum memory devices, nonlinear phenomena, and cryogenic amplifiers for reading quantum processors paved the way for practical quantum computing," said Ilya Rodionov, director of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and FSUE VNIIA Research Center.

The current award is a landmark event, as the most efficient and massively tested quantum computers in the world are built on a superconducting platform, the expert concluded.