The scientific focus of the chair is optical spectroscopy, i.e., the investigation of matter with light. We are using ultrafast laser pulses to follow the dynamics of the optical properties of materials on a femtosecond timescale

We are working in the field of ultrafast nanooptics and combine optical spectroscopy of ultrafast temporal resolution (femtoseconds) with high spatial resolution (nanometers). We use these methods to investigate single nanoobjects such as molecules, semiconductor nanocrystals and metal nanoparticles, but also two-dimensional nanosystems as graphene. One important tool is gold nanostructures that show a plasmon resonance and enhance, similar to radio antennas, the interaction of light with the nanoobject.

The former group of Prof. Alois Seilmeier had its focus on time-resolved spectroscopy of complex semiconductor heterostructures in the visible and near-infrared spectral region. Since May 2017 Prof. Georg Herink took over the labs of Alois Seilmeier. Georg is using real-time spectroscopy to investigate processes on short time scales.