Prof. Dr. Uwe Morgner

Laser physics is physics of extremes. In no other field of research are the quantities pushed to the outer edges of the unit scales from atto to peta. We find extreme conditions in the foci of high-intensity laser pulses: Peak powers of terawatts, field strengths of gigavolts/cm or thousands of teslas, light pressures of gigapascals and temperatures of megakelvins are already achievable today with manageable commercial laser sources. Laser optics spans a wide range from single-photon experiments to strong-field physics, so there are hardly any areas of science and engineering that do not benefit substantially from coherent photons for targeted manipulation or as sensitive sensors. Research on and with new sources of femto- and sub-femtosecond laser pulses is the focus of the research group, both in experiments and in theory/numerics. This is followed by investigations into very fundamental questions of the interaction of such short light pulses with matter.

Current work in PhoenixD relates to the writing of structures, e.g. waveguides, in glass, polymer or diamond, the efficient generation of ultraviolet femtosecond radiation through non-linear effects on nanostructures and laser-driven generation of X-rays. Many follow-up and cooperation projects in spectroscopy, microscopy and sensor technology benefit from the innovative sources.