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. Stimulated Raman scattering of superlumininal femtosecond Bessel pulses

    S. Klewitz, S. Sogomonian, M. Woerner, S. Herminghaus

    Opt. Commun. 154 (1998) 186-190
  2. Ultrafast heating and cooling of electron plasmas in GaInAs/AlInAs quantum wells after intersubband excitation

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

    Sol. State Commun. 106 (1998) 425-429
  3. Femtosecond dynamics and coherence properties of resonant secondary emission from excitons in GaAs quantum wells

    M. Woerner, J. Shah

    Ultrafast Phenomena XI, T. Elsaesser, D. Wiersma, J. Fujimoto, W. Zinth (Eds), Springer Verlag Berlin (1998) 227-229
  4. Resonant secondary emission from two-dimensional excitons: Femtosecond time evolution of the coherence properties

    M. Woerner, J. Shah

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 4208-4211
  5. Femtosecond dynamics of resonant secondary emission from GaAs quantum wells

    M. Woerner, J. Shah

    in: Radiative Processes and Dephasing in Semiconductors, D. Citrin (Ed.), OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics Series (TOPS) 18 (1998) 20-23
  6. Ultrafast dynamics of nonlinear intersubband absorption in n-type modulation doped GaInAs/AlInAs quantum wells

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

    Phys. Stat. Sol. (b) 204 (1997) 212-214
  7. Coherent intersubband polarizations in a quasi-two-dimensional electron plasma studied by femtosecond four-wave-mixing in the mid-infrared

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

    Phys. Stat. Sol (b) 204 (1997) 27-30
  8. Ultrafast dynamics of coherent inter-valence band polarization in bulk GaAs studied with 20 fs pulses

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

    Phys. Stat. Sol. (b) 204 (1997) 23-26
  9. Heavy-light hole quantum beats in the band-to-band continuum of GaAs observed in 20 femtosecond pump-probe experiments

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

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 (1997) 737-740
  10. Intervalence band absorption in the AlGaAs miror layers of long-wavelength vertical cavity lasers

    P. Enders, J. Piprek, M. Woerner

    OSA Trends in Optics & Photonics (TOPS) 15 (1997) 118