Paul Corkum


Paul Bruce Corkum is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science. He holds a joint University of Ottawa–NRC chair in attosecond photonics. He also holds academic positions at Texas A&M University and the University of New Mexico. Corkum is both a theorist and an experimentalist. He is known for developing the theory of attosecond physics.

Biography and research

Paul Corkum was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. He obtained his BSc from Acadia University, Nova Scotia, and his MSc and PhD in theoretical physics from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania. He was a physicist at the National Research Council of Canada, and was then appointed as a professor of physics at the University of Ottawa. He won several awards for his work on laser science.
In the 1980s he developed a model of the ionization of atoms and on this basis proposed a new approach to making X-ray lasers, under the name of optical field ionization. The OFI lasers are today one of the most important developments in X-ray laser research.
In the early 1990s in strong field atomic physics there were discoveries of high harmonic generation and correlated double ionization. Corkum's recollision electron model served as the basis for the generation of attosecond pulses from lasers. With this method in 2001 Corkum with colleagues in Vienna succeeded in demonstrating for the first time laser pulse lengths lasting less than 1 femtosecond. The method was used for the generation of higher harmonics and for exploration of atoms and molecules in the angstrom range and below.
Corkum's recollision electron physics has led to many advances in understanding the interactions among coherent electrons, coherent light, and coherent atoms or molecules. The recollision electron can be thought of as an electron interferometer built by laser light generated from atoms or molecules. As an interferometer, the recollision electron can be used to measure atomic and molecular orbitals by means of interfering waves from the bound electrons and the recollision electrons.
From 1997 to 2009, he was the adjunct professor of physics at McMaster University.
In 2018, Corkum was the first Canadian to be awarded the Isaac Newton Medal by the Institute of Physics for his outstanding contributions to experimental physics and to attosecond science and for pioneering work which has led to the first-ever experimental image of a molecular orbital and the first-ever space–time image of an attosecond pulse. Attosecond techniques can freeze the motion of electrons within atoms and molecules, observe quantum mechanical orbitals, and follow chemical reactions.

Honors and awards

Awards

Membership

Selected works

  • with N. H. Burnett, M. Y. Ivanov:
  • with H. Niikura, F. Legaré, R. Hasbani, M. Ivanov, D. Villeneuve:
  • with Ferenc Krausz:
  • with Chandrasekhar Joshi:
  • with Donna Strickland: