ETH-FAST Fellow from September 29 - October 3, 2014

Uwe Thumm

Tutorial topics:

• Femtosecond physics: Imaging intramolecular forces and nuclear wave functions in small molecules with ultrashort laser and XUV pulses - Tu. Sept. 30, 9.00 - 12.00, HPF G6,  Abstract1 , 2014 Dimer Dissociation Dynamics.
• Attosecond physics: Time-resolved coherent excitation and photoelectron emission from atoms, nanoparticles, and solid surfaces - We. Oct. 1, 9.00 - 12.00, HPF G6, Abstract2, 2014 Attosecond Physics Handbook of Photonics.

Lecture handouts: on request

Professor of Physics: Atomic, Molecular, Optical, and Surface Physics
James R. Macdonald Laboratory and Department of Physics,
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-2604, USA

Dr. rer. nat. (University of Freiburg, 1989)
Dipl. Phys. (University of Freiburg, 1985).

Uwe Thumm was raised in Freiburg, Germany and studied physics and mathematics in Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Paris, France. For the past two decades, he has been teaching physics at all university levels at Kansas State University and led successful research programs in several areas of theoretical Atomic, Molecular, Optical (AMO), and Surface Physics, including

• light-matter interactions,
• atomic structure calculations,
• electron-atom scattering,
• ion-atom collisions, and
• particle interactions with clusters, nanoparticles, thin films, and solid surfaces.

 Uwe is a fellow of the American Physical and received numerous research awards from the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the Max-Planck Society, and the German Science Foundation (DFG). His theoretical research and numerical modeling resulted in more than 96 refereed publications, three patents, and over 230 non-refereed publications and press releases. He maintained fruitful international research collaborations at the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin, the Manne-Siegbahn Institute in Stockholm, Harvard University, the Technical University of Dresden, Max-Planck Institutes in Heidelberg and Garching, and the Universities of Lincoln Nebraska, Freiburg, Kassel, and Frankfurt. Broader impacts of his group’s basic research are of relevance for

• solar energy conversion, novel light sources, and quantum computing,
• thermionic energy conversion, improved light sources,
• ion-lithography and controlled thermonuclear fusion, and
• surface chemistry, catalysis, functional nanostructures.

More recently, in close collaboration with experimental groups and motivated in part by available and emerging intense short-pulse laser, XUV, and X-ray light sources, Uwe Thumm’s research group started to develop conceptual, analytical, and numerical tools for the theoretical description of the

• coherent electronic dynamics in atoms,
• light-induced and -probed electronic and nuclear dynamics in molecules, and
• particle and light interactions with plasmonic nanostructures.

The unifying theme behind these efforts is the study of dynamical processes at the natural time scale of either the electronic motion (attoseconds, 1 as=10^-18s) or the nuclear motion in molecules (femtoseconds, 1 fs=10^-15s). An important goal for the Thumm group’s future research is to combine this ultrahigh resolution in time with high spatial resolution at the intrinsic length scale (1 Angstrøm) of matter.

Back »