Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren (C), Eva Olsson and Thors Hans Hansson, members of the Nobel Committee for Physics announce the winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. (Photo: Reuters)

The awards were given for "experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science", the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the laureates -- Aspect is French, Clauser American and Zeilinger Austrian -- enabled further fundamental research and also potentially cleared the way for new practical technology.

The physics prize announcement will be followed by awards for chemistry, literature, peace and economics.