Serge Haroche is on Luminate this week. Serge Haroche is a professor at the Collège de France and holds the Chair of Quantum Physics. In 2012, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for “ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems”.
Starting in the 1980s, Haroche has designed ingenious experiments to study quantum phenomena when matter and light interact. He has been able to capture photons using a trap made of highly reflecting mirrors between which the light particles can bounce billions of times. This device allowed Haroche and his team to study the photons by passing atoms through the trap.
Haroche has received many prizes and awards, including the Grand Prix Jean Ricard of the French Physical Society, the Einstein Prize for Laser Science, the Humbold Award and the CNRS Gold Medal.
