A life in context
The person behind the prize
Clarke completed his doctorate at Cambridge and built a career studying superconductivity and exceptionally sensitive electrical measurements. At Berkeley his laboratory provided the setting for experiments that tested whether a collective electrical state could behave according to quantum mechanics.
The contribution
With Devoret and Martinis, he established that a superconducting circuit could escape an energy barrier by quantum tunnelling and occupy discrete energy levels. The experiment brought a quantum question into a manufactured device.
The idea in plain language
Quantum tunnelling allows a system to pass through an energy barrier that classical physics would not let it cross. Energy quantisation means the allowed energies come in distinct levels rather than a smooth continuum.
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