Professor Alain Aspect
Senior Fellow of Institute for Advanced Study, City University of Hong Kong
Wolf Prize & Balzan Prize Recipient
Corresponding Member/ Member of Académie des Sciences (France)
Member of Académie des Technologies (France)
Foreign Member of Royal Society (London)
Fellow of Optical Society of America,
American Physical Society & European Optical Society
Contact Information
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Professor Alain Aspect is known for his experiments illuminating the most intriguing properties of quantum mechanics. His Bell's inequalities tests with pairs of entangled photons (1982) have contributed to settle a debate between Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr, started in 1935. He has also, with Philippe Grangier, given a striking demonstration of wave-particle duality for a single photon, and realized the Wheeler's delayed choice experiment.
After his contribution to the development of laser cooling of atoms, with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (1985-1992), he has switched to atom optics, where the group he has established revisits landmarks in quantum optics and develops quantum simulators of disordered materials.
A professor at the Institut d'Optique graduate school and at Ecole Polytechnique (University Paris-Saclay), he is a member of several academies (France, USA, Austria). Among the awards he has received: the CNRS gold medal (2005), the Wolf prize in Physics (2010), the Nils Bohr Gold medal and the Albert Einstein medal (2012), the Ives medal/Quinn prize of the OSA (2013), the Balzan prize in quantum information (2014).
After his contribution to the development of laser cooling of atoms, with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (1985-1992), he has switched to atom optics, where the group he has established revisits landmarks in quantum optics and develops quantum simulators of disordered materials.
A professor at the Institut d'Optique graduate school and at Ecole Polytechnique (University Paris-Saclay), he is a member of several academies (France, USA, Austria). Among the awards he has received: the CNRS gold medal (2005), the Wolf prize in Physics (2010), the Nils Bohr Gold medal and the Albert Einstein medal (2012), the Ives medal/Quinn prize of the OSA (2013), the Balzan prize in quantum information (2014).
Education
- 1965-69 : Studies at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan and Université d’Orsay.
- 1969 : ‘Agrégation’ in Physics (national French ranking exam)
- 1969-1971 : Master thesis (Thèse 3ème cycle), Orsay: “Fourier spectroscopy by holography”
- 1974-1983 : PhD, Orsay: “Three experimental tests of Bell’s inequalities with entangled photons”
Positions Held
- 1969-71 : Assistant lecturer, Orsay University
- 1971-74 : Teacher as voluntary service overseas in Yaoundé (Cameroon)
- 1974-85 : Lecturer (Maître assistant), Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan
- 1985-92 : Collège de France scientist (sous-directeur de laboratoire), associated with the chair of atomic physics held by C. Cohen-Tannoudji
- 1992-2012 : CNRS Senior scientist (directeur de recherche), at Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d'Optique: head of the Atom Optics group. Professor at Institut d’Optique and Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau
Research Topics (Main Results)
- 1969-1971 : COHERENT OPTICS (S. Lowenthal advisor, at Institut d'Optique)
- Fourier transform spectroscopy by holography
- 1974-1985 : NON CLASSICAL PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AS TESTS OF THE FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS (with P. Grangier, J. Dalibard, at Institut d'Optique)
- Tests of Bell’s inequalities with pairs of entangled photons
- Production of heralded single photons and test of the wave particle duality with single photons
- 1985-1992 : LASER COOLING OF ATOMS (with C. Cohen-Tannoudji at ENS Paris and College de France)
- Blue molasses (with J. Dalibard, C. Salomon)
- Atom channeling in a standing wave (with J. Dalibard, C. Salomon)
- Laser cooling below the one photon recoil by Velocity Selective Coherent Population Trapping (with E. Arimondo)
- 1992- : ATOM OPTICS and ULTRA-COLD ATOMS (with C. Westbrook, P. Bouyer, L. Sanchez-Palencia, at Institut d'Optique)
- Atomic mirrors: role of roughness; van der Waals-Casimir force
- Atom lasers: ABCD matrices, M2 parameter, guided atom laser
- Quantum atom optics (Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect, correlated atom pairs) with metastable helium (first observation of Bose Einstein Condensation of metastable helium)
- Quantum transport and Anderson localization of matter waves in disordered optical potentials
Publications
About 200 articles in international journals: more than 20 papers cited more than 100 times, (ISI web of science data).
The three papers on Bell’s inequality tests
- The three papers on Bell’s inequality tests have been selected as the “Physical Review Milestone Letters” of the year 1981: http://prl.aps.org/50years/milestones
- Aspect A., Grangier P., Roger G., Phys. Rev. Lett., 47 (1981) p.460:
"Experimental tests of realistic local theories via Bell's theorem" - Aspect A., Grangier P., Roger G., Phys. Rev. Lett., 49 (1982) p.91:
"Experimental realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen gedankenexperiment; a new violation of Bell's inequalities" - Aspect A., Dalibard J., Roger G., Phys. Rev. Lett., 49 (1982) p.1804:
"Experimental test of bell's inequalities using time-varying analyzers"
- Aspect A., Grangier P., Roger G., Phys. Rev. Lett., 47 (1981) p.460:
- The main idea of the third experiment above had been proposed in:
- A. Aspect, "Proposed Experiment To Test Separable Hidden-Variable Theories," Physics Letters A 54 (2), 117-118 (1975).
- A. Aspect, "Proposed Experiment To Test Nonseparability Of Quantum-Mechanics," Physical Review D 14 (8), 1944-1951 (1976).
The paper on laser cooling below the one photon recoil
- The paper on laser cooling below the one photon recoil has been selected as one of the “Physical Review Milestone Letters” of 1988: http://prl.aps.org/50years/milestones
- Aspect A., Arimondo E., Kaiser R., Vansteenkiste N., Cohen-Tannoudji C., phys. Rev. Lett., 61 (1988) p.826: "Laser cooling below the one-photon recoil energy by velocity-selective coherent population trapping"
The paper on production and characterization of heralded single photons
- The paper on production and characterization of heralded single photons, and test of wave particle duality, belongs to “the most cited papers” of EuroPhysics Letters: http://iopscience.iop.org/0295-5075/page/Most%20Cited%20Articles
- Grangier P., Roger G., Aspect A., Europhys. Lett., 1 (1986) p.173-179: "Experimental evidence for a photon anticorrelation effect on a beam splitter: a new light on single-photon interferences"
Selection of papers in the last decade
- W. Guerin, J. F. Riou, J. P. Gaebler, V. Josse, P. Bouyer, and A. Aspect, Guided quasicontinuous atom laser, Physical Review Letters 97 (2006)
- D. Clement, A. F. Varon, M. Hugbart, J. A. Retter, P. Bouyer, L. Sanchez-Palencia, D. M. Gangardt, G. V. Shlyapnikov, and A. Aspect, Suppression of transport of an interacting elongated Bose-Einstein condensate in a random potential, Physical Review Letters 95 (2005)
- M. Schellekens, R. Hoppeler, A. Perrin, J. V. Gomes, D. Boiron, A. Aspect, and C. I. Westbrook, Hanbury Brown Twiss effect for ultracold quantum gases, Science 310 (2005) 648.
- T. Jeltes, J. M. McNamara, W. Hogervorst, W. Vassen, V. Krachmalnicoff, M. Schellekens, A. Perrin, H. Chang, D. Boiron, A. Aspect, and C. I. Westbrook, Comparison of the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect for bosons and fermions, Nature 445 (2007) 402.
- Perrin, H. Chang, V. Krachmalnicoff, M. Schellekens, D. Boiron, A. Aspect, and C. I. Westbrook, Observation of atom pairs in spontaneous four-wave mixing of two colliding Bose-Einstein condensates, Physical Review Letters 99 (2007)
- V. Jacques, E. Wu, F. Grosshans, F. Treussart, P. Grangier, A. Aspect, and J. F. Roch, Experimental realization of Wheeler's delayed-choice gedanken experiment, Science 315 (2007) 966.
- J. Billy, V. Josse, Z. C. Zuo, A. Bernard, B. Hambrecht, P. Lugan, D. Clement, L. Sanchez-Palencia, P. Bouyer, and A. Aspect, Direct observation of Anderson localization of matter waves in a controlled disorder, Nature 453 (2008) 891.
- J. C. Jaskula, M. Bonneau, G. B. Partridge, V. Krachmalnicoff, P. Deuar, K. V. Kheruntsyan, A. Aspect, D. Boiron, and C. I. Westbrook, Sub-poissonian number differences in four-wave mixing of matter waves, Physical Review Letters 105 (2010) 190402.
- F. Jendrzejewski, A. Bernard, K. Muller, P. Cheinet, V. Josse, M. Piraud, L. Pezze, L. Sanchez-Palencia, A. Aspect, and P. Bouyer, Three-dimensional localization of ultracold atoms in an optical disordered potential, Nature Physics 8 (2012) 398.
- F. Jendrzejewski, K. Muller, J. Richard, A. Date, T. Plisson, P. Bouyer, A. Aspect, and V. Josse, Coherent Backscattering of Ultracold Atoms, Physical Review Letters 109 (19) (2012).
- R. Lopes1, A. Imanaliev1, A. Aspect1, M. Cheneau1, D. Boiron1 & C. I. Westbrook1, Atomic Hong–Ou–Mandel experiment, Nature (2015)
Books
- G. Grynberg, A. Aspect, C. Fabre, “An Introduction to Quantum Optics: From the Semi-classical Approach to Quantized Light” (revised with help of F.Bretenaker and A. Browaeys), 2010, Cambridge University Press.
- F. Bardou, J.-P. Bouchaud, A. Aspect and C. Cohen-Tannoudji, « Lévy Statistics and Laser Cooling: How Rare Events Bring Atoms to Rest », Cambridge University Press (2002).
- Aspect, author of the chapter “Bell’s theorem: the naïve view of an experimentalist”, in “Quantum [un]speakables, from Bell to Quantum information”, R.A. Bertlmann and A. Zeilinger edit. (Springer 2002). Available at http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0402001
- Aspect, “John Bell and the second quantum revolution”: introduction to the second edition of “Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics”, J.S. Bell, Cambridge University Press (2004).
- Aspect, co-author of “Demain la Physique”, (ed. O. Jacob 2004; revised 2009), and in particular of the chapter: « Une nouvelle révolution quantique ».
- Aspect and P. Grangier, « De l’article d’Einstein Podolsky et Rosen à l’information quantique » in « Einstein aujourd’hui », CNRS EDITIONS-EDP Sciences (2005).
CD Audio
Einstein et les révolutions quantiques, De Vive Voix/Académie des Sciences:
Distinguished Membership or Fellowship
- 1995 /2002 : Académie des Sciences (France) corresponding member / member
- 2000 : Académie des Technologies (France) member
- 2008 : National Academy of Sciences (USA) Foreign Associate
- 2009 : Austrian Academy of Sciences corresponding member abroad
- 2015 : Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres, et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique: associé étranger
- 2015 : Royal Society (London): Foreign Member
- 2002 : Optical Society of America Fellow
- 2005 : American Physical Society Fellow
- 2010 : European Optical Society Fellow
- 2017 : City University of Hong Kong, Institute for Advanced Study, Senior Fellow
Awards
- 1983 : Prix Servan de l’Académie des Sciences, France
- 1985 : Commonwealth Award for Science and Invention, USA
- 1987 : International Commission for Optics Award
- 1991 : Holweck Prize (Société Française de Physique and Institute of Physics)
- 1999 : Max Born Award of the Optical Society of America, USA
- 1999 : Humboldt-Gay Lussac Prize, Germany
- 2000 : Carnegie trust centenary professor, U. of Strathclyde, Scotland
- 2005 : CNRS Gold Medal, France
- 2007 : iXcore research foundation laureate
- 2009 : European Physical Society Quantum Electronics Prize
- http://qeod.epsdivisions.org/QEOD%20Prizes/eps-quantum-electronics-prize
- 2010 : Wolf prize in Physics
- 2010 : ERC Advanced grant
- 2011 : Médaille grand vermeil de la Ville de Paris
- 2011 : Herbert Walther award (OSA and DPG)
- 2012 : Einstein medal of the Albert Einstein Society
- 2013 : Ives medal / Quinn prize of the OSA
- 2013 : Tommassoni prize, University of Rome La Sapienza
- 2013 : Niels Bohr Gold Medal of Danish Academy of Engineers / Niels Bohr Institute / Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters
- 2013 : Balzan Prize in Quantum Information
- 2013 : Unesco-Niels Bohr Gold medal
Distinguished Lectureship
- 1992 : Loebb lecturer, Harvard University, USA
- 2000 : Carnegie centennial professor, University of Strathclyde, Scotland
- 2002 : Klosk lecturer, New York University, USA
- 2006 : Norman Hascoe distinguished lecturer, UConn, USA
- 2006 : Yale University distinguished lecturer in quantum information physics
- 2006 : Wenner-Gren distinguished lecturer, Sweden
- 2009 : Lecturer at the “Troisième cycle de la physique en Suisse romande”
- 2009 : Asher Peres memorial lecturer, Technion, Israel
- 2009 : University of Toronto distinguished lecturer
- 2010 : Elliott W. Montroll lecturer, U of Rochester
- 2010 : Schrödinger lecturer, Imperial College, London
- 2010 : Wright lecturer, Geneva
- 2011 : Session chair and contributor to the centennial Solvay Conference in Physics on "The Theory of The Quantum World"
- 2012 : Lecturer of the "XX Jornadas de Optica Cuàntica y Fudamentos de Mecànica Cuàntica", University of Bilbao
- 2012 : Invited professor at the Joint Quantum Institute of University of Maryland and National Institute of Standard and Technology
- 2012 : Rochester lecturer, University of Durham
- 2014 : Hans Jensen lecture, University of Heidelberg
- 2015 : Max von Laue Kolloquium of the Physikalische Gesellshaft zu Berlin
Honorary Degrees
- 2006 : Honorary doctor of the Ecole Polytechnique and University of Montreal
- 2008 : Honorary doctor of the Australian National University, Canberra
- 2008 : Honorary doctor of the Herriot-Watt University, Edimburgh
- 2010 : Honorary doctor of the University of Glasgow
- 2011 : Honorary doctor of Technion (Haifa)
- 2014 : Honorary doctor of the University of Waterloo, Canada
Decorations
- 2005 : Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur
- 2011 : Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite
- 2011 : Commandeur des palmes académiques (teaching decoration)
- 2014 : Officier de la Légion d'Honneur
