Nobel Physics 2025: Clarke, Devoret and Martinis scientists have been awarded who revealed the secret of the quantum “tunnel”

The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences conferred the Nobel Prize for Physics 2025 to John Clarke (University of California, Berkeley), Michel H. Devoret (University of Yale and University of California, Santa Barbara) e John M. Martinis (University of California, Santa Barbara). The recognition comes “For the discovery of the macroscopic quantum tunnel effect and the quantization of energy in an electrical circuit“.

The work of the three scientists addresses one of the great open issues of physics: what is the maximum size of a system capable of manifesting the effects of quantum mechanics? Their experiments, conducted on a simple electrical circuit, gave a surprising response, showing that the Quantum phenomena can also emerge on a scale greater than what was thought.

The tunnel effect

At the heart of the prize there is the quantum tunnel effect. This phenomenon allows a particle to cross a barrier, even if it does not have enough energy to climb it, as if a “tunnel” dug. Traditionally, when a large number of particles is involved, the quantum effects cancel themselves, becoming insignificant, explains the academy.

The winners of the Nobel Prize, with a series of Experiments conducted in 1984 and 1985they challenged this belief. They used an electronic circuit composed of superconductors, materials that lead current without electrical resistance. In this circuit, the superconducting layers were separated by a thin insulation, creating a Josephson junction. The ingenuity was that the charged particles that moved through the superconductor collectively formed a single macroscopic system, which behaved like a single giant particle that occupied the entire circuit.

Initially, this macroscopic system was in a stable state, where the current flowed at zero tension, as if it were trapped behind a barrier. Measuring the properties of the circuit with extreme precision, Clarke, Devoret and Martinis observed that the system was able to “escape” this state at zero voltage precisely by tunnel effect. The manifestation of this quantum escape was the appearance of a tension in the circuit. In practice, they have shown that the system, although macroscopic (large enough to be kept in hand), has exhibited an intrinsically quantum character.

In addition, scientists have been able to demonstrate another key behavior of quantum mechanics: the system is quantized, that is It absorbs or emits energy only in discrete and specific quantities.

Perspectives for the next digital generation

There quantum mechanicsborn a century ago, continues to offer new, useful surprises, as he pointed out Olle Erikssonpresident of the Nobel Committee for Physics:

It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way quantum mechanics, a century old, continually offers new surprises. It is also extremely useful, since quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.

Clarke’s work, Devoret and Martinis, explained the Academy, opens the doors to the development of the next generation of quantum technology. This includes crucial fields for the digital and sustainable future such as the quantum encryption (for safer communications), i quantum computers (with a exponentially superior calculation power) and quantum sensors (for extremely precise measurements).