Research Projects - Ultrafast Group

Ultrafast Lasers

There is a secret world beyond our perception where things happen much faster than our wits. Scientists over all the centuries invented machines and techniques to reveal the quickly evolving world of matter, molecules, and atoms. The latest and most successful achievements are the ultrafast lasers with time resolution in the femto- and attosecond regime. In the foci of commercially available high power laser pulses we are able to observe extreme conditions: Peak powers in the Terawatt, magnetic fields with thousands of Tesla, light pressures of Gigapascal, and temperatures of Megakelvin. In our group we study the physics of these laser sources; we investigate very new ways to control the photons, and many of our laser light sources here in Hannover are unique in the world.

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Theoretical Optics and Computational Photonics

The group focuses on theoretical and computational investigations of light-matter interaction in complex optical and photonic systems. The investigations include the theoretical analyses modeling of the fundamental effects, development of suitable numerical methods and their application. A wide range of methods are applied, ranging from spectral and statistical methods to finite-difference time-domain methods. Our research area includes modern nonlinear optics and quantum optics, laser physics, photonics in condensed matter, and micro- and nanophotonics. One focus is the manipulation and control of light pulses, both in ultrafast optics and strong-field phenomena and in the generation and control of single photons.

 

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Virtual Lab

Our theoretical and computational research concerns multi-scale and multi-physics light matter interaction with a focus on generation and application of few- and single cycle pulses. This includes modern nonlinear optics, ultrashort pulse propagation in different media such as gases or condensed matter, generation of new frequencies, and strong field phenomena. The investigations comprise the theoretical analysis of the fundamental effects, modeling, and development of adequate numerical methods. High-performance computing and rigorous multi-dimensional simulation are used for realistic descriptions of the experiments. Besides supporting and optimizing the experimental investigations, a strong focus is set on developing new concepts.

Ultrafast Laser Applications

The unique properties of laser pulses, such as high intensity, high brightness and coherence, tunability, or ultrabroad bandwidth have fertilized many areas in engineering, chemistry, physics, and the life sciences. We employ sophisticated laser sources in selected application areas such as bio imaging or material processing.

XUV Laser Physics

We investigate coherent and strong field interactions of lasers with matter involving the use of ultrafast and ultra-intense lasers for the generation of laser-driven short-pulse light sources producing extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.