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Paul Corkum

{{Short description|Canadian physicist (born 1943)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Paul B. Corkum

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1943|10|30}}

| birth_place = Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

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| fields = Attosecond physics
Laser science

| workplaces = University of Ottawa

| alma_mater = Acadia University (BSc.)
Lehigh University (MSc.), (PhD)

| thesis_title = The relation between magnetohydrodynamics and space and time dependent correlation functions

| thesis_url = https://preserve.lehigh.edu/lehigh-scholarship/graduate-publications-theses-dissertations/theses-dissertations/relation-1

| thesis_year = 1972

| doctoral_advisor = James Alan MacLennan Jr.

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| awards = Wolf Prize in Physics (2022)
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2022)
APS Medal (2025)

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Paul Bruce Corkum {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|OC|OOnt|FRSC|FRS|HonFRPS}} (born October 30, 1943) is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science.{{cite press release |publisher=NSERC |date=16 March 2009 |title=Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering}}, as published in Physics in Canada, 65(2) 58. 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.{{cite press release |publisher=Canadian Council for the Arts |date=27 March 2006 |title=Paul Corkum, Jean-Marie Dufour, B. Brett Finlay, Roderick Guthrie and Susan Sherwin to receive $100,000 Killam Prizes for 2006 |url=http://www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2006/aa127879522433786880.htm |accessdate=2009-06-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219164615/http://www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2006/aa127879522433786880.htm |archivedate=19 February 2008 }} He obtained his BSc (1965) from Acadia University, Nova Scotia, and his MSc (1967) and PhD (1972) in theoretical physics from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania.{{cite web |title=Paul Corkum |url=http://www.iqc.ca/people/person.php?id=667 |publisher=Institute for Quantum Computing |accessdate=2009-06-30}} 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{{cite journal|author=Corkum, Paul|title=Recollision Physics|journal=Physics Today|volume=64|issue=3|date=March 2011|pages=36–41|url=http://www.attoscience.ca/pdf/Corkum_Physics%20Today_2011.pdf|doi=10.1063/1.3563818|bibcode=2011PhT....64c..36C}} 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.{{cite journal|author=Hentschel, M.|title=Attosecond metrology|journal=Nature|volume=414|issue=6863|date=29 Nov 2001|pages=509–513|bibcode = 2001Natur.414..509H |doi = 10.1038/35107000 |pmid=11734845|s2cid=6043342|display-authors=etal}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.rcinet.ca/fr/2018/07/16/premiere-medaille-isaac-newton-pour-le-canada-le-physicien-paul-corkum-decroche-le-sesame/ |title=Première médaille Isaac Newton pour le Canada : le physicien Paul Corkum illumine de gloire le pays |date=16 July 2018 | language=fr |trans-title=First Isaac Newton for Canada: physicist Paul Corkum brightens the glory of the country}}[https://www.iop.org/about/awards/isaac-newton-medal-and-prize/isaac-newton-medal-and-prize-recipients Isaac Newton Medal]

Honors and awards

= Awards =

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|date=

|title=Paul Corkum – Biography

|url=http://jaslab.ca/corkum_e.html

|website=

|publisher=Joint Attosecond Science Laboratory

|accessdate=2010-09-23

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317194334/http://www.jaslab.ca/corkum_e.html

|archive-date=2018-03-17

|url-status=dead

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Selected works

  • {{cite journal|title=Plasma perspective on strong field multiphoton ionization|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=71|year=1993|pages=1994–1997|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.1994|bibcode = 1993PhRvL..71.1994C|pmid=10054556|issue=13|author=Corkum PB|s2cid=29947935 |url=https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/accepted/?id=c16dde3a-0d05-4437-bca6-3292fdd9d9ff}}
  • with N. H. Burnett, M. Y. Ivanov: {{cite journal|title=Subfemtosecond pulses|journal=Optics Letters|volume=19|issue=22|year=1994|pages=1870–1872|doi=10.1364/OL.19.001870|pmid=19855681|bibcode = 1994OptL...19.1870C |last1=Corkum|first1=P. B.|last2=Burnett|first2=N. H.|last3=Ivanov|first3=M. Y.}}
  • with H. Niikura, F. Legaré, R. Hasbani, M. Ivanov, D. Villeneuve: {{cite journal|title=Probing molecular dynamics with attosecond resolution using correlated wave packet pairs|journal=Nature|volume=421|issue=6925|year=2003|pages=826–829|doi=10.1038/nature01430|bibcode = 2003Natur.421..826N|pmid=12594508|vauthors=Niikura H, Légaré F, Hasbani R, Ivanov MY, Villeneuve DM, Corkum PB|s2cid=4318208|url=https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/accepted/?id=6ad03a7c-f89d-4209-943e-36e61ad989fc}}
  • with Ferenc Krausz: {{cite journal|title=Attosecond Science|journal=Nature Physics|volume=3|issue=6|year=2007|pages=381–387|doi=10.1038/nphys620|bibcode = 2007NatPh...3..381C |last1=Corkum|first1=P. B.|last2=Krausz|first2=Ferenc}}
  • with Chandrasekhar Joshi: {{cite journal|title=Interaction of ultra-intense laser light with matter|journal=Physics Today|date=January 1995|url=http://www.seas.ucla.edu/plasma/files/journals/1995_Joshi_Interactions.pdf|doi=10.1063/1.881451|bibcode=1995PhT....48a..36J|volume=48|issue=1|page=36|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140225200755/http://www.seas.ucla.edu/plasma/files/journals/1995_Joshi_Interactions.pdf|archivedate=2014-02-25|last1=Joshi|first1=Chandrashekhar J.|last2=Corkum|first2=Paul}}
  • with Donna Strickland: {{cite journal|title=Resistance of short pulses to self-focusing|journal=JOSA B |volume=11|issue=3|year=1994|pages=492–497|doi=10.1364/JOSAB.11.000492|bibcode=1994JOSAB..11..492S |last1=Strickland |first1=D. |last2=Corkum |first2=P. B. |s2cid=122336320 }}

References

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External links

  • [http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/seminars/online/PSC/corkum2/ Attosecond Science Seminar by Paul Corkum]
  • [http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/qcontrolt-c09/corkum/rm/flash.html Video: Paul Corkum (Nat'l Research Council of Canada), Attosecond Science]

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Category:1943 births

Category:Living people

Category:Acadia University alumni

Category:Canadian fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Canadian physicists

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Category:Lehigh University alumni

Category:Members of the Order of Ontario

Category:Officers of the Order of Canada

Category:Scientists from Saint John, New Brunswick

Category:Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal

Category:Academic staff of the University of Ottawa