“An attosecond is to a second as a second is to the age of the universe. To see what happens to electrons, you need attosecond science”

Recognized with the 15th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences, physicist Paul Corkum explores in this interview the origins and impact of attosecond physics, a field that he, together with his colleagues, helped to establish in order to observe and control the motion of electrons in atoms, molecules, and solids using ultrashort pulses of light. Corkum clearly explains how these extraordinarily fast measurements have allowed us to “film” subatomic processes that were previously inaccessible, and reflects on the implications of this technological frontier for fundamental physics and its potential future applications.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences goes in this fifteenth edition to Anne L’Huillier (Lund University, Sweden), Paul Corkum (University of Ottawa, Canada) and Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany), the

Recognized with the 15th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences, physicist Paul Corkum explores in this interview the origins and impact of attosecond physics, a field that he, together with his colleagues, helped to establish in order to observe and control the motion of electrons in atoms, molecules, and solids using ultrashort pulses of light. Corkum clearly explains how these extraordinarily fast measurements have allowed us to “film” subatomic processes that were previously inaccessible, and reflects on the implications of this technological frontier for fundamental physics and its potential future applications.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences goes in this fifteenth edition to Anne L’Huillier (Lund University, Sweden), Paul Corkum (University of Ottawa, Canada) and Ferenc Krausz (Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Germany), the three pioneers of “attosecond physics” or “attophysics” whose work has made it possible to observe subatomic processes unfolding over the shortest time scale captured by science.