Dr. Ulrich Eichmann

The project manager at the Max Born Institute investigates fundamental mechanisms in the ionization dynamics of isolated particles in strong and strongest laser fields

Ulrich Eichmann, born in Münster , studied physics initially at the TU Berlin, then moved to University of Freiburg. After receiving his diploma in1984 and a research period in 1986 at the University of Virginia, USA, he finished his doctoral work in 1990 with novel results on laser spectroscopic investigations of fundamental three body Coulomb systems. He continued his scientific work as a research assistant (C1) and as project leader in the centre of excellence Sonderforschungsbereich 276 at the University of Freiburg.

He received a research grant from the DFG to work in the ion storage group of Dr David Wineland at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from 1992 to 1993. His research there was motivated by fundamental issues of quantum mechanics. His most interesting result is the observation of Young’s interference effect in the fluorescence light of two closely spaced trapped ions.

After his return to Germany he followed an offer by Prof. W. Sandner to join the newly founded Max Born Institute, where he extended his research towards multi-electron systems in strong laser fields. He qualified as professor (Habilitation) at the TU Berlin in 2001 and since 2002 he is also affiliated with the Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik as a Privatdozent, where he teaches physics courses regularly.

His research focus

During the last years Dr Eichmann’s research focus has been set on the investigation of fundamental mechanisms in the ionization dynamics of isolated particles in strong and strongest laser fields, one of the central subjects of the high field laser laboratory at the Max Born Institute. Eichmann’s latest results have shown that in spite of the interactions with intense focussed laser light atoms do not necessarily ionize, but survive to a large fraction as neutral atoms in an excited state.

Based on these results he and his group were able to demonstrate a new acceleration mechanism in a strong focussed laser beam, which accelerates neutral atoms with accelerations as high as 1015 m/s2, corresponding to 100 trillion times earth’s gravity. This is the highest observed acceleration of neutral matter in the laboratory. The results have been published in Nature, October 29th. The results also find their imprint on the issue cover which presents a figure demonstrating the deflection of Helium atoms after interaction with a strong laser field

Contact: Dr. Ulrich Eichmann, e-mail, tel.: +49-(0)30-6392-1371, www.mbi-berlin.de