MBI Staff Member – Personal info

Position

  • Head of Department C3 "Femtosecond Spectroscopy on Solids"
  • Coordinator of Project 3.2 "Solids and Nanostructures: Electrons, Spins, and Phonons"
  • Coordinator of Project 3.3 "Transient Structures and Imaging with X-rays"

Research

I am interested in ultrafast and nonlinear phenomena in condensed matter, in particular organic and inorganic solids and nanostructures. To this end, I generate and apply ultrashort pulses in a wide spectral range (THz to hard x-ray) to measure the nonequilibrium dynamics of elementary excitations in solids and the ultrafast structural dynamics of crystalline material. Most recent activities are two-dimensional spectroscopy in the THz frequency range (Figure: two phonon coherences in InSb) and femtosecond x-ray absorption experiments using table top high harmonic sources.

Curriculum vitae

1981-1988 Study of physics at the Technical University (TU) of Munich

1988-1991 PhD Work at TU Munich, Physics Department E11 (Prof. W. Kaiser)

1991 Graduation (Dr. rer. nat.) at the TU

1991-1993 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Physics Department E11, TU Munich

1993-1996 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max-Born-Institute, Berlin

1997 Postdoctoral Researcher at Bell Laboratories (Lucent), Holmdel, NJ, USA

since 1997 Department head of C3 at the Max-Born-Institute, Berlin

1999 Habilitation at the Humboldt University Berlin

Recent highlight(s)

Electric polarization in the macroscopic world and electrons moving at atomic scales

Wiggling atoms switch the electric polarization of crystals

Quantum Swing - a pendulum that moves forward and backwards at the same time

Amplification of Sound Waves at Extreme Frequencies

Hot means slow: Electron plasma oscillations tuned down with light

The longer the better: Optical long-wavelength pulses generate brilliant ultrashort hard x-ray flashes

MBI Publications

  1. Ultrafast two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy of elementary excitations in solids

    M. Woerner, W. Kuehn, P. Bowlan, K. Reimann, T. Elsaesser

    New Journal of Physics 15 (2013) 025039/1-16
  2. Field-driven dynamics of correlated electrons in LiH and NaBH4 revealed by femtosecond x-ray diffraction

    V. Juvé, M. Holtz, F. Zamponi, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, A. Borgschulte

    Physical Review Letters 111 (2013) 217401/1-5
  3. Ultrafast inter-ionic charge transfer of transition-metal complexes mapped by femtosecond X-ray powder diffraction

    B. Freyer, F. Zamponi, V. Juvé, J. Stingl, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, M. Chergui

    Journal of Chemical Physics 138 (2013) 144504/1-8
  4. Femtosecond X-ray diffraction using the rotating crystal method

    B. Freyer, J. Stingl, F. Zamponi, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Ultrafast Phenomena XVIII EDP Sciences (2013) 12004/1-3
  5. Ultrafast two-dimensional THz spectroscopy of graphene

    P. Bowlan, E. Martinez Moreno, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Ultrafast Phenomena XVIII EDP Sciences (2013) 04024/1-2
  6. Transition from ballistic to drift motion in high-field transport in GaAs

    P. Bowlan, W. Kuehn, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, R. Hey, C. Flytzanis

    Ultrafast Phenomena XVIII EDP Sciences (2013) 04002/1-3
  7. Coupling of intersubband transitions to zone-folded acoustic phonons in a GaN/AIN superlattice

    C. Aku-Leh, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, E. Monroy, D. Hofstetter

    Physical Review B 85 (2012) 155323/1-5
  8. Ultrafast soft-mode driven charge relocation in an ionic crystal

    F. Zamponi, J. Stingl, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 14 (2012) 6156-6159
  9. Ultrafast large-amplitude relocation of electronic charge in ionic crystals

    F. Zamponi, P. Rothhardt, J. Stingl, M. Woerner, T Elsaesser

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (2012) 5207-5212
  10. Electron transfer in a virtual quantum state of LiBH4 induced by strong optical fields and mapped by femtosecond X-ray diffraction

    J. Stingl, F. Zamponi, B. Freyer, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, A. Borgschulte

    Physical Review Letters 109 (2012) 147402/1-5