Professor Peter Hommelhoff, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, Germany, has received the Otto Hahn Prize 2025.

The prize is awarded by the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the German Chemical Society (GDCh), and the German Physical Society (DPG). It serves to promote science, particularly in the areas of chemistry, physics, and applied engineering, by recognizing outstanding scientific achievements and is endowed with EUR 50,000. The award ceremony took place on October 23, 2025, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main.

Peter Hommelhoff is honored for his pioneering contributions to the ultrafast control of electrons and the resulting establishment of new fields of research.

Building on his method, Hommelhoff opened two new research fields: strong-field physics at metal surfaces, enabling unprecedented precision in studying their properties, and quantum electron optics, which allows electron microscopes to capture not only images but also films. He also pursues applications of ultrashort controlled electron pulses, such as integrating a femtosecond electron source onto a photonic chip to shrink particle accelerators to millimeter size—potentially enabling minimally invasive cancer treatments—though further research is required.

 

Research

Peter Hommelhoff investigates extremely fast and small-scale physical processes, particularly the interaction of light and electrons. Groundbreaking was his integration of ultrafast optics into electron beam research, which led to the invention of a femtosecond electron source by focusing a femtosecond laser—emitting light pulses at quadrillionths of a second—onto a sharp metal tip, thereby generating ultrashort electron pulses of exceptional quality.

The control of electrons on the femtosecond scale expands our understanding of matter. Such fundamental research is indispensable for both physics and chemistry.

 

Life and Career

Peter Hommelhoff studied physics at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and received his doctorate from LMU Munich. From 2003 to 2007, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, CA, USA, then led a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garchingen, Germany; after holding a professorship at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, he now holds a chair at LMU Munich.

Among other honors, Peter Hommelhoff has received the 2022 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.

 

Selected Publications

• F. Javier García de Abajo, Albert Polman, Cruz I. Velasco, Mathieu Kociak, Luiz H. G. Tizei, Odile Stéphan, Sophie Meuret, Takumi Sannomiya, Keiichirou Akiba, Yves Auad, Armin Feist, Claus Ropers, Peter Baum, John H. Gaida, Murat Sivis, Hugo Lourenço-Martins, Luca Serafini, Johan Verbeeck, Andrea Konečná, Nahid Talebi, Beatrice Matilde Ferrari, Cameron J. R. Duncan, Maria Giulia Bravi, Irene Ostroman, Giovanni Maria Vanacore, Ethan Nussinson, Ron Ruimy, Yuval Adiv, Arthur Niedermayr, Ido Kaminer, Valerio Di Giulio, Ofer Kfir, Zhexin Zhao, Roy Shiloh, Yuya Morimoto, Martin Kozák, Peter Hommelhoff, Francesco Barantani, Fabrizio Carbone, Fatemeh Chahshouri, Wiebke Albrecht, Sergio Rey, Toon Coenen, Erik Kieft, Hoelen L. Lalandec Robert, Frank de Jong, Magdalena Solà-Garcia, Roadmap for Quantum Nanophotonics with Free Electrons, ACS Photonics 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.5c00585

• Raphael Dahan, Alexey Gorlach, Urs Haeusler, Aviv Karnieli, Ori Eyal, Peyman Yousefi, Mordechai Segev, Ady Arie, Gadi Eisenstein, Peter Hommelhoff, Ido Kaminer, Imprinting the quantum statistics of photons on free electrons, Science 2021, 373(6561). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj7128

• Takuya Higuchi, Christian Heide, Konrad Ullmann, Heiko B. Weber, Peter Hommelhoff, Light-field-driven currents in graphene, Nature 2017, 550, 224–228. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23900

• John Breuerm Peter Hommelhoff, Laser-Based Acceleration of Nonrelativistic Electrons at a Dielectric Structure, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2013. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.134803

• Michael Krüger, Markus Schenk, Peter Hommelhoff, Attosecond control of electrons emitted from a nanoscale metal tip, Nature 2011, 475, 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10196

• Peter Hommelhoff, Catherine Kealhofer, Mark A. Kasevich, Tip Triggered by Low-Power Femtosecond Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 2006. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.247402