Paul Bruce Corkum OC OOnt FRSC FRS (born October 30, 1943) is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science.
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.
[5] 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.
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.