Nobel in Physics 2025: J.Clarke, M. Devoret, J. Martinis for macroscopic quantum tunnelling discovery

John Clarke from the UK and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, M Devoret from France and John Martinis from the US, both based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, (USA), are awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit", announces Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on 07/10/2025.

The three laureates conducted experiments together at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1980s, with Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis serving as postdoctoral fellows in John Clarke's laboratory.

"Quantum mechanics allows particles to pass directly through barriers via a process known as tunnelling. Normally, when many particles are involved, such quantum effects disappear. However, the laureates’ experiments showed that quantum mechanical behaviour can persist and be observed on the macroscopic scale of an electrical circuit", explains the Academy.

The winners "used a series of experiments to demonstrate that the…