Otto Hahn Group for Ultrafast Electron Dynamics takes off

September 02, 2013

The newly founded Otto Hahn Group for Ultrafast Electron Dynamics will begin work at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in September 2013. The junior research group is supported by the Otto Hahn Award of the Max Planck Society, which was presented to Dr. Isabella Gierz in 2012 for the discovery of a giant spin splitting on semiconducting surfaces [PRL 103, 046803 (2009)].

Dr. Isabella Gierz, Otto Hahn Group leader, in front of the photoemission setup at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg. The two round chambers on the left hand side of the picture are used for focussing high harmonics in the energy range from 10 to 40 eV onto the sample that is sitting in the ARPES chamber on the right hand side of the picture.

Dr. Isabella Gierz, Otto Hahn Group leader, in front of the photoemission setup at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg. The two round chambers on the left hand side of the picture are used for focussing high harmonics in the energy range from 10 to 40 eV onto the sample that is sitting in the ARPES chamber on the right hand side of the picture.

Dr. Gierz’s group will use time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on the femtosecond timescale to investigate low-dimensional electron systems such as graphene, strongly correlated one-dimensional metallic wires, and two-dimensional systems with a strong spin-orbit interaction. By combining in situ sample preparation with selective electronic or vibrational excitation, the group aims to better understand electronic structure far from equilibrium and, ultimately, to induce entirely new electronic properties using tailored light pulses.