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. Femtosecond infrared spectroscopy of semiconductors and semiconductors nanostructures

    T. Elsaesser, M. Woerner

    Phys. Reports 321 (1999) 253-305
  2. Femtosecond infrared pulses tunable from 9 to 18 mm at 88 MHz repetition rate

    R. A. Kaindl, D. C. Smith, M. Joschko, M. P. Hasselbeck, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Opt. Lett. 23 (1998) 861-863
  3. Generation of high repetition rate femtosecond infrared pulses tunable from 9 to 18 µm

    R.A. Kaindl, D.C. Smith, M. Joschko, M.P. Hasselbeck, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Ultrafast Phenomena XI, T. Elsaesser, D. Wiersma, J. Fujimoto, W. Zinth (Eds), Springer Verlag Berlin (1998) 66-68
  4. Ultrafast dephasing of coherent intersubband polarizations in quasi-two-dimensional electron plasma

    R. A. Kaindl, S. Lutgen, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, B. Nottelmann, V.M. Axt, T. Kuhn, A. Hase, H. Künzel

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 (1998) 3575-3578
  5. Ultrafast coherent dynamics of impulsively excited inter-valence band polarizations in bulk GaAs

    M. Joschko, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, E. Binder, T. Kuhn, R. Hey, H. Kostial, K. Ploog

    in: Radiative Processes and Dephasing in Semiconductors, D. Citrin (Ed.), OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics Series (TOPS) 18 (1998) 80-85
  6. Coherent inter-valence band polarizations in bulk GaAs studied on a sub-100 fs time scale

    M. Joschko, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, E. Binder, T. Kuhn, R. Hey, H. Kostial, K. Ploog

    Phys. Stat. Sol. (b) 206 (1998) 299-305
  7. Ultrafast pump-pobe signals at the band edge of bulk GaAs: excitonic versus free carrier contributions

    M. Joschko, M.P. Hasselbeck, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, R. Hey, H. Kostial, K. Ploog

    Ultrafast Phenomena XI, T. Elsaesser, D. Wiersma, J. Fujimoto, W. Zinth (Eds), Springer Verlag Berlin (1998) 257-259
  8. Excitonic and free-carrier quantum beats created by femtosecond excitation at the band edge of GaAs

    M. Joschko, M. Hasselbeck, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, R. Hey, H. Kostial, K. Ploog

    Phys. Rev. B 58 (1998) 10470-10474
  9. Ultrafast coherent and incoherent dynamics of intersubband excitations in quasi-two-dimensional semiconductors

    T. Elsaesser, R.A. Kaindl, S. Lutgen, M. Woerner, A. Hase, H. Künzel

    SPIE Proceedings Series 3277 (1998) 2-9
  10. Femtosecond mid-infrared spectroscopy of nonequlibrium excitations in YBa2Cu3O7-d

    R.A. Kaindl, D.C. Smith, M. Woerner, C.J. Stevens, G.A. Wagner, J.E. Evetts, J.F. Ryan, T. Elsaesser

    Ultrafast Phenomena XI, T. Elsaesser, D. Wiersma, J. Fujimoto, W. Zinth (Eds), Springer Verlag Berlin (1998) 368-370