Chair for Laser Physics
Welcome to the website of the Chair for Laser Physics!
At the moment we work in three main branches of research that combine the topics of laser physics, quantum, electron, and nano optics, strong-field and attosecond physics, plasmonics and solid state research. We investigate the wave and particle properties of electrons in ultrafast processes in and at nano objects; we develop new particle traps to create quantum optical systems in order to build a quantum electron microscope; we use laser pulses at photonic nanostructures to look into novel concepts for particle acceleration.
The main part of our laboratory is centered around light-matter interaction on fastest time scales, namely the femtosecond and attosecond time scale (1 fs = 1 millionth of a billionth of a second, 1 as = 1 billionth of a billionth of a second). This allows us, to put it a bit more abstractly, to work towards understanding und utilizing photon-electron coupling in various systems. A part of this is based on highly advanced methods to control electrons, often with light fields, which requires building new laser sources and amplifiers.
Delay line detectors have the advantage of being able to detect the position and time of particle events with high precision while also being multi-hit capable.
Our article presents a novel machine learning approach to enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of delay line detectors for multi-event re...
Particle accelerators are indispensable for research, medicine and industry. We have developed a miniature particle accelerator that accelerates and guides electrons through nanostructures using laser light.
In an interview in Welt der Physik (German), Prof. Dr. Hommelhoff and Stefanie Kraus repo...
Needle tips are known to be the electron source with the highest beam quality. However, due to their small size, the emitted current is limited. Combining the emission of multiple tips should allow for high currents while still providing appreciable beam quality. We have fabricated and measured an a...
How do the electron number statistics behave when classical light and non-classical light are used to trigger non-linear photoemission from nanometer-sized metal tips? We discuss this question in our recently published manuscript in Nature Physics, which can be read here.
For more details see als...
The ACHIP research program, generously supported by the Californian Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation with around 20 million euros, has come to an end. ACHIP stands for "Accelerator on a Chip International Program". It has funded research into this type of laser-based accelerator and allowed us to m...
Our Master's student Julian Freier has been awarded the contribution prize of the German Physical Society's Radiation and Medical Physics Association at this year's DPG Spring Meeting in Berlin. He received the award for his poster titled "Cell Irradiation Experiments and Film Dosimetry with Low Ene...
UCLA Professor Sergio Carbajo has won one of the highly competitive Humboldt Research Fellowships. This will allow him to visit us for up to a year to conduct research with us. Congratulations! We are looking forward to the visit!