Paul Corkum

Paul Bruce Corkum (born October 30, 1943) is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science. He holds a joint University of Ottawa–NRC chair in attosecond photonics. He obtained his BSc from Acadia University, Nova Scotia, and his MSc (1967) and PhD (1972) in theoretical physics from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania. He was a physicist at the National Research Council of Canada (1973-2008), 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 (i.e. plasma production) and on this basis proposed a new approach to making X-ray lasers, under the name of optical field ionization (OFI). 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 (in which an atom can absorb hundreds of photons and emit two electrons). 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 (as a type of laser tunneling microscope) 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 1996 Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Physics (Canadian Association of Physicists) 2009 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering (NSERC) 2010 Fellow of The Optical Society 2013 King Faisal International Prize for Physics (King Faisal Foundation). 2013 Royal Photographic Society Progress medal and Honorary Fellowship awarded in recognition of any invention, research, publication or other contribution which has resulted in an important advance in the scientific or technological development of photography or imaging in the widest sense 2013 Harvey Prize 2014 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Prize 2015 Lomonosov Gold Medal 2015 selected Clarivate Citation laureate in Physics with Ferenc Krausz "for contributions to the development of attosecond physics." 2017 Royal Medal 2018 Institute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal 2022 Wolf Prize in Physics 2022 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences 2025 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research. 2026 IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal

Membership Femtosecond Science Group at the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences (Founder) Royal Society of London (Member)

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: