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-phonon quantum coherences in indium antimonide studied by nonlinear two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy

    C. Somma, G. Folpini, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Physical Review Letters 116 (2016) 177401/1-6
  2. Coherent acoustic phonon amplification in a strongly coupled semiconductor superlattice under intraminiband transport

    K. Shinokita, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, R. Hey, C. Flytzanis

    Ultrafast Phenomena XX Optical Society of America (2016) UW4A.1/1-3
  3. Strong amplification of coherent acoustic phonons by intraminiband currents in a semiconductor superlattice

    K. Shinokita, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, R. Hey, C. Flytzanis

    Physical Review Letters 116 (2016) 075504/1-5
  4. Shift-current-induced strain waves in LiNbO3 mapped by femtosecond x-ray diffraction

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

    Physical Review B 94 (2016) 104302/1-7
  5. Theoretical analysis of hard x-ray generation by nonperturbative interaction of ultrashort light pulses with a metal

    J. Weisshaupt, V. Juvé, M. Holtz, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Structural Dynamics 2 (2015) 024102/1-19
  6. Sub-100 fs mid-infrared pulses as driver for a table-top hard x-ray source

    J. Weisshaupt, V. Juvé, M. Holtz, S. Ku, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, S. Ališauskas, A. Pugžlys, A. Baltuška

    Ultrafast Phenomena XIX Springer (2015) 770-773
  7. Ultrafast nonlinear response of bulk plasmons in highly doped ZnO layers

    T. Tyborski, S. Kalusniak, S. Sadofev, F. Henneberger, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Physical Review Letters 115 (2015) 147401/1-5
  8. Ultrafast THz photo-galvanic carrier transport. Extreme field induced regime

    C. Somma, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser, C. Flytzanis

    Romanian Journal of Physics 67 (2015) 1597-1601
  9. Ultrafast terahertz response of lithium niobate in the nonperturbative regime

    C. Somma, K. Reimann, C. Flytzanis, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Ultrafast Phenomena XIX Springer (2015) 620-622
  10. Ultra-broadband terahertz pulses generated in the organic crystal DSTMS

    C. Somma, G. Folpini, J. Gupta, K. Reimann, M. Woerner, T. Elsaesser

    Optics Letters 40 (2015) 3404-3407