Ferenc Krausz named his research group attoworld, highlighting the importance of attosecond physics in observing the subatomic movements of electrons – a world in itself, yet until relatively recently, obscured from human knowledge. An attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second, and it is at this timescale that guides the dynamics of electrons. Krausz succeeded in measuring the unmeasurable by conducting an experiment that generated a powerful ultrashort pulse of light, lasting only 650 attoseconds. For their research and dedication to this new scientific field, Ferenc Krausz, Anne L’Huillier and Pierre Agostini were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023.
“Control is central to time-resolved observation and exploration,” said Krausz. By controlling short laser pulses to eject the electron from the atom, it is possible to collect snapshots of the electromagnetic field, which allows the observation of electron dynamics.
Krausz and his team have taken this research a significant step further by developing applications in medicine. Electric-field molecular fingerprinting uses field-resolved infrared spectroscopy to determine molecular changes in human blood. This promising technique increases the detection efficiency of diseases such as cancer and could alter screening methods for whole populations. On being awarded the Nobel Prize, Krausz has said of this work, “I take the Academy’s decision as a mandate for the pursuit of this very goal with utmost determination.”
Ferenc Krausz was born on 17 May 1962 in Mór, Hungary. He studied both electrical engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and theoretical physics at Eötvös Loránd University. In 1987, Krausz moved to Austria to begin a doctorate in laser physics at the Vienna University of Technology. After graduating with distinction, Krausz continued his career at this very institution until 2004, where he obtained his habilitation in laser physics (1993), and became an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering in 1996, and Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1999. In 2003, Krausz was appointed Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and soon after, in 2004, became Professor of Experimental Physics at Campus Garching and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Ferenc Krausz is married and has two children.
