Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 Awarded for Breakthroughs in Quantum Tunnelling and Energy Quantisation

Physicists John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John M. Martinis were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics due to the discovery of macroscopic quantum tunnelling and quantisation of energy in an electrical circuit. They demonstrated that quantum mechanics is capable of acting on a scale that is large enough to fit in your hand. In a miniature-sized superconducting circuit, electrons tunneled through a barrier in a wave and interacted as one quantum system. The experiment is a transition between the abstract theory of quantum and real-world technology.

New dimensions for quantum technology

According to the Nobel committee chair, quantum mechanics is “the foundation of all digital technology”. Clarke said their breakthrough “in many ways” became the basis of quantum computers. Indeed, their findings underlie modern quantum electronics: as The Guardian reported, they “laid the foundation for today's superconducting qubits”, a key platform for quantum computers.

The official statement also highlighted new applications in “quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors”. They could ultimately enable new quantum cryptography, sensing and computing capabilities.

Quantum tunnelling on a human scale

The quantum mechanics theory allows particles to tunnel through barriers when they do not have sufficient energy. Clarke, Devoret and Martinis demonstrated that it could be done collectively by a great number of particles. They constructed a Josephson junction in the 1980s consisting of two superconductors with an insulator in between and applied a small current to it. What they found was sudden spikes in voltages, indicating that trillions of superconducting electrons had all tunnelled together. The Guardian pointed out that this is as though a ball going through a brick wall, and this is now illustrated in the size of a hand circuit.