Ferenc Krausz
active c. 1962, Mór, Hungary
Hungarian-Austrian-German physicist who produced the first isolated attosecond pulses — a 'camera' filming electron motion.
Krausz researched in Vienna then built his group at MPQ Garching. He combined few-cycle femtosecond lasers with high harmonics to produce isolated attosecond pulses (2001) timing Auger electron escape, then 'filmed' light-field oscillations cycle by cycle — attosecond control of light.
Nobel-winning work
In 2001 Krausz's group generated and characterized a 650-attosecond pulse — resolving the electric-field oscillation of the laser and electron escape times in argon. The work opened 'attosecond physics': measuring photoemission delays, steering chemistry via carrier-envelope phase, and foundations for field-based medical diagnostics.
Workplaces: Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Hungary, Austria, Germany