STOCKHOLM, October 7. /TASS/. The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their breakthrough research in quantum mechanics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences reported.

The physicists received the award "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit," the Nobel Committee said.

The research of Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis paved the way for the development of the next generation of quantum technologies, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers and quantum sensors.

In 1984 and 1985, the physicists carried out a series of experiments with an electronic circuit, demonstrating both quantum mechanical tunneling and the system’s behavior in the manner predicted by quantum mechanics.

"It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises. It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology," Nobel Committee for Physics Chairman Olle Eriksson said.

John Clarke, born in 1942 in Cambridge, England, is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Michel H. Devoret was born in 1953 in Paris, France. He currently works at Yale University (deemed undesirable on the territory of Russia) and the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the US. John M. Martinis was born in the US in 1958 and also works at UC Santa Barbara.