Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Quantum Mechanics Research

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to three scientists who proved that quantum mechanics isn’t just for the tiny stuff — it can show up in circuits you can hold in your hand.

John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis have been awarded the Nobel prize “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”

Their groundbreaking work, conducted in the 1980s, involves building a superconducting electronic circuit with a Josephson junction — that’s where two superconductors are separated by a thin insulating layer. In this setup, they were able to observe quantum behaviours in a system far larger than the atoms and particles quantum mechanics is usually known for.

In their experiments, they showed that the entire circuit could behave like a single quantum particle. It was stuck in a zero-voltage state — almost like it was behind an invisible wall — and then, thanks to quantum tunnelling, it managed to escape. The appearance of voltage on the circuit confirmed that the system had "tunnelled" through the barrier, just like quantum theory predicts.

The researchers also showed that the system absorbed and released energy in fixed amounts, meaning it was quantised — another key feature of quantum mechanics.

“It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises,” said Olle Eriksson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. “It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology.”

While transistors in today’s devices already rely on quantum principles, the trio’s experiments paved the way for even more advanced technologies, like quantum sensors, quantum cryptography, and quantum computing.

The three winners will share prize money of 11 million Swedish kronor (about £872,000), and receive gold medals from the king of Sweden in December.

“For me, to put it mildly, it was a surprise of my life,” said John Clarke, a British-born physicist now at the University of California, Berkeley. Devoret is affiliated with both Yale University and UC Santa Barbara, where Martinis is also based.

“There is no advanced technology used today that does not rely on quantum mechanics, including mobile phones, cameras... and fibre optic cables,” said the Nobel committee — and thanks to this year’s laureates, the future of that technology just got a little closer.