• Skip to Management
  • Skip to Main menu
  • Skip to Page content
Adlershof Logo
  • WISTA
  • WISTA.Plan
  • WISTA.Service
WISTA direkt
Search
  • de
  • en
  • Adlershof Logo
  • About / Directory
    • Companies / Institutes
    • Science City in numbers
    • Direction / Maps
      • Bus / Train
      • By Car
      • Bicycle
      • Orientation / Maps
      • Trail of Thoughts
  • Newsroom
    • Overview
    • News
      • Social Media Stream
      • Success Stories
    • Events / Calendar
      • Adlershof Dissertation Award
      • Adlershof Research Forum
      • Long Night of Sciences Berlin
    • Adlershof Journal
    • Hot Topics
      • Adlershof Mission "Grand Challenges"
      • Circular Economy
      • Digital infra­structure / 5G campus network
    • Photos / Flyer / Downloads
      • Magazine archive
    • WISTA-Editorial Staff
  • Science / Technology
    • Overview
    • Technology Centres
      • Photonics / Optics
      • Biotech­nology / Envi­ron­ment
      • Micro­systems / Materi­als
      • IT / Media
      • Renewable Energy / Photovoltaics
    • Non-university Research
    • Universities / Colleges
      • Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
      • Services for Students
    • Young Talents / STEM / School Labs
    • Start-Ups
      • Adlershof Start-Up Centre IGZ
      • Adlershof Founder’s Lab
    • Networks / Management
      • Campus Club Adlershof
  • TV / Media
    • TV and Movie Production
    • Media Services / Companies
    • News and Events
    • Filming Locations
    • Costume Hire
    • GDR Film Archive
    • Tickets / Booking
  • Properties
    • Overview
    • Real Estate Rent
      • Office Space / Workspace / Laboratories
    • Real Estate Offers
      • Commercial Properties
    • ST3AM Working Environments / Coworking
    • Residential
    • Construction
      • Building Projects
      • Architecture
      • Webcam
  • Service
    • Overview
    • Gastronomy / Sport / Culture / Shopping
    • Jobs / Market
    • Social and Healthcare Facilities
    • WISTA-Business Services
    • Event Services / Guided Tours / Hotels
    • Facility Management
    • Downloads / Photos / Videos
    • Jobs for Refugees
  • Hood
    • Overview
    • History
    • Nature Park
    • Culture
    • Technology Park
    • Digital Tours
  • WISTA
  • WISTA.Plan
  • WISTA.Service
WISTA direkt

News

  • Overview
  • News
  • Events / Calendar
  • Adlershof Journal
  • Hot Topics
  • Photos / Flyer / Downloads
  • WISTA-Editorial Staff
  • Adlershof
  • Newsroom
  • News
28. October 2016

Films from the Nanoworld

Stefan Eisebitt uses ultrafast light pulses to turn off or reverse magnetisation

Stefan Eisebitt, Max-Born-Institut

Stefan Eisebitt gets to the bottom of things. He uses ultrafast light pulses to not only examine the properties of matter in their “resting state”, but also to see how the excitement of electrons affects the properties of a material, such as magnetism. Moreover, the 51-year-old experimental physicist aims at manipulating materials on the nanoscale.

Since 2015, Stefan Eisebitt has been one of the three directors of the MBI Max-Born-Institute for Non-Linear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy and a professor at the Technical University Berlin since 2008. After studying at the University of Cologne, where he also received his PhD, his research in Julich, Vancouver, Standford, and, since 2002, Berlin focused on how light pulses change the electronic and magnetic properties of rigid bodies. “The light is absorbed and the electrons are temporarily excited in order to change their molecular state,” says Eisebitt. 

The electrons determine whether a rigid body is metallic or semi-conductive, or translucent or not. The state of magnetization depends on the electrons, which in turn are affected by the vibrations of the atoms in the crystal lattice. “We examine these things in the short amounts of time that these electronic movements happen in”, says Eisebitt. They last only very few femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth second). The system is stimulated with a short light pulse and tested with a second. This produces time-independent data or, one could say, short films from the Nanoworld starring electrons as the leading actors. The pulses can also prompt magnetically structured material to demagnetize. Moreover, circularly polarized light pulses can reverse magnetization in a controlled fashion. This is hugely interesting with regard to technology, because it could be used for ultra-fast data storage in hard drives.

This already works in a lab with materials made from gadolinium, but the researchers are not completely clear how the processes work. The use of soft x-rays (XUVs) with a wavelength of only a few nanometers (millionths of millimetres) is essential for clarification. It can be used to transfer electrons “highly accurately” between energy levels and for researchers to spectroscopically determine the magnetic properties of any type of atom.

The short wavelengths of the XUV rays make it possible to create images on a nanometer scale. MBI researchers do this by using x-ray holography. Eisenbitt has also contributed to refining this technology, which is now used not only at the BESSY II in Adlershof, but in x-ray lasers all over the world. Meanwhile, some of these experiments with ultra-short XUV pulses can be conducted without large electron accelerators. "We will be able to do many tests on magnetic switching directly here at MBI,” says Eisebitt. Cooperation with the next-door Leibniz-Institute for Crystal Growth (IKZ) is planned, for example, on researching thin metal oxide layers, which have displayed promising magneto-optical properties.

By Paul Janositz for Adlershof Journal

www.mbi-berlin.de

  • LinkedInshare0
  • Facebookshare0
  • WhatsAppshare0
  • E-Mail

The development of the Science and Technology Park Berlin Adlershof was and is co-financed by the European Union namely by EFRE. This concerns infrastructure development like construction of technology centres. Furthermore EFRE is used for international projects.

  • © WISTA Management GmbH
  • Legal Notice
  • Privacy Policy
  • Social Media Guide
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Newsletter
  • RSS
  • International
Member of:
Zukunftsort Adlershof Logo