MBI Staff Member – Personal info
Dr. Michael Woerner
michael.woerner(at)mbi-berlin.de
+49 30 6392 1470
C3: Femtosecond Spectroscopy of Solids
Building C, 1.2
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
- Accurate time delay determination for femtosecond X-ray diffraction experiments Applied Physics B 88 (2007) 1-4
- Coupled ultrafast lattice and polarization dynamics in ferroelectric nanolayers Physical Review Letters 98 (2007) 257601/1-4
- Probing strain propagation in nanolayered perovskites by diffraction of femtosecond x-rays Ultrafast Phenomena XV Springer (2007) 713-715
- Simultaneous ultrafast probing of intramolecular vibrations and photoinduced charge carriers in rubrene using broadband time-domain THz spectroscopy Physical Review B 75 (2007) 195216/1-5
- Nonlinear THz spectroscopy of n-type GaAs Ultrafast Phenomena XV Springer (2007) 799-801
- Measuring optical frequencies in the 0 - 40 THz range with non-synchronized electro-optic sampling Nature Photonics 1 (2007) 577-580 (see also: Probing the infrared - p602, Interview with Klaus Reimann)
- Internal motions of a quasiparticle governing its ultrafast nonlinear response Nature 450 (2007) 1210-1213
- Ultrafast changes of molecular crystal structure induced by dipole solvation Physical Review Letters 98 (2007) 248301/1-4
- Phonon sidebands of intersubband absorption in AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures 32 (2006) 562-565
- Ultrafast hole-burning in intersubband absorption lines of GaN/AIN superlattices Applied Physics Letters 89 (2006) 151103/1-3