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. Two-color two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy: A new approach for exploring even-order nonlinearities in the nonperturbative regime

    M. Woerner, A. Ghalgaoui, K. Reimann, T. Elsaesser

    Journal of Chemical Physics 154 (2021) 154203/1-9
  2. Frequency upshift of the transverse optical phonon resonance in GaAs by femtosecond electron-hole excitation

    A. Ghalgaoui, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, C. Flytzanis, K. Biermann

    Physical Review Letters 125 (2020) 027401/1-5
  3. Spatial distribution of electric-field enhancement across the gap of terahertz bow-tie antennas

    M. Runge, D. Engel, M. Schneider, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Optics Express 28 (2020) 24389-24398
  4. Field-induced tunneling ionization and terahertz-driven electron dynamics in liquid water

    A. Ghalgaoui, L.-M. Koll, B. Schütte, B. P. Fingerhut, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 11 (2020) 7717–7722
  5. Nonlinear terahertz response of solvated electrons in liquid water

    A. Ghalgaoui, B. P. Fingerhut, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    The 22nd International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena 2020 OSA Publishing (2020) doi.org/10.1364/UP.2020.Th4A.4
  6. Blueshift of the TO phonon resonance in GaAs by femtosecond electron-hole excitation

    K. Reimann, A. Ghalgaoui, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, C. Flytzanis, K. Biermann

    The 22nd International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena 2020 OSA Publishing, (2020) doi.org/10.1364/UP.2020.Tu3B.3
  7. Terahertz driven amplification of coherent optical phonons in GaAs coupled to metallic dog-bone resonators

    M. Woerner, C. Somma, K. Reimann, T. Elsaesser, I. Brener, J. L. Reno, Y. Yang, P. Q. Liu

    Ultrafast Phenomena XXI 205 EPJ Web of Conferences (2019) 05007/1-3
  8. Millijoule few-cycle 5 μm source at 1 kHz repetition rate for generating broadband pulses from the mid- to far-infrared

    G. Folpini, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, L. von Grafenstein, M. Bock, U. Griebner, T. Elsaesser

    Ultrafast Phenomena XXI 205 EPJ Web of Conferences (2019) 01014/1-3
  9. Phonon driven charge dynamics in polycrystalline acetylsalicylic acid mapped by ultrafast x-ray diffraction

    C. Hauf, Hernández Salvador, A.-A., M. Holtz, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Structural Dynamics 6 (2019) 014503/1-7
  10. Time-resolved photoluminescence from n-doped GaN/Al0.18Ga0.82N short-period superlattices probes carrier kinetics and long-term structural stability

    F. Mahler, J. W. Tomm, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, V. Hoffmann, C. Netzel, M. Weyers, T. Elsaesser

    Journal of Applied Physics 125 (2019) 185705/1-7