Dr. Ernst Knoesel
Physics Department, Science Hall
In my laboratory I use ultrafast lasers with a pulse duration of 10 -13 s to study the dynamics of non-linear conductivity in blue bronzes. Here, visible light pulses and FAR-IR light pulses at THz-frequencies synchronously interact with the crystal and detect its reflectance as a function of delay time between the two pulses.
Blue bronzes are crystals of complex structure, similar to superconducting materials. They feature many interesting phenomena such as charge density waves (CDW), non-linear conductivity, and a metal-insulator transition upon cooling.
During studies in my laboratory students will learn the use of ultrafast lasers, general optics and non-linear optics, crygenics and vacuum systems, concepts of electronic excitations and relaxation mechanism in solids and fluids, data acquisition with computer interfaces and programming in LABVIEW.
Further areas of interest include the making and visualization of holograms for the Summer Institute. In addition, I am investigating the clustering behavior of salts diluted in water.