News Division Pfeifer
Soft X-ray Hanle effect for lifetime determination in highly charged ions
For the first time, the Hanle effect was detected in the soft X-ray regime for helium-like nitrogen ions. This opens up a new method for lifetime…
ERC Starting Grant for Vera Schäfer
In the latest call for proposals from the European Research Council (ERC), Dr. Vera Schäfer has been awarded one of the prestigious ERC Starting…
Ultrafast steering of quantum-entangled electrons
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg have succeeded in selectively manipulating the motion of the electron pair…
Unexpected behaviour of carbon dioxide dimers after ionisation
A team of international scientists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the MPIK has unveiled a surprising discovery in molecular physics,…
Mildred Dresselhaus Award 2024 for Laura Cattaneo
Dr. Laura Cattaneo, head of the Max Planck Research Group „ULCD – Ultrafast Liquid Crystal Dynamics“ at MPIK, will be honored within the Mildred…
José R. Crespo López-Urrutia elected into DFG review board
MPIK scientist successful in DFG review board election
Oxygen dissociation time-resolved with the first combination of extreme-ultraviolet light sources
For the first time, researchers have succeeded in selectively exciting a molecule using a combination of two extreme-ultraviolet light sources and…
Highly charged Xenon ions as probes of fifth forces
A comprehensive spectroscopic study identified highly charged xenon ions as an excellent candidate for probing new physics. Thirteen atomic…
How cosmic rays influence space chemistry - cold molecular ions measured in the Laboratory
Scientists from the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik and other institutions have obtained a significantly higher ionization rate in dilute molecular…
Precise testing of quantum electrodynamics
Measurement of the g factor of the electron in hydrogen-like tin confirms the standard model of particle physics under extremely high electric field…
Electron recollision tracked in real-time in one shot
The motion of an electron in a strong infrared laser field is tracked in real time by means of a novel method developed by MPIK physicists and applied…
Electrons and photons in a twin pack
Resonant two-photon ionisation of helium measured with angular resolution
World's first optical atomic clock with highly charged ions
Optical atomic clocks are the most accurate measuring instruments ever built and are becoming key tools for basic and applied research, for example to…
José R. Crespo López-Urrutia Fellow of the American Physical Society
“For groundbreaking experiments on sympathetic cooling of highly charged ions and many contributions to spectroscopy for astrophysics, plasma physics,…
Intense laser light modifies the pairing of electrons
The quantum-mechanical exchange interaction between electrons, a consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle, can be specifically modified with…
Explosion in a biomolecule
When cells are exposed to ionising radiation, more destructive chain reactions may occur than previously thought. An international team led by…
Quantum algorithms bring ions to a standstill
Laser beams can do more than just heat things up; they can cool them down too. That is nothing new for physicists who have devoted themselves to…
MPIK twice among the finalists for “Breakthrough of the Year 2021“
Both the work on coherent control of nuclear excitations with suitably shaped X-ray light and the new method for sympathetic laser cooling of protons…
Professorship for Anne Harth
Dr. Anne Harth, head of a junior research group in the Pfeifer department at MPIK, has accepted a professorship for “Computational Optics & Light…
Dissertation Prize of DPG for Peter Micke
For his dissertation and lecture entitled „Quantum Logic Spectroscopy of Highly Charged Ions“, Dr. Peter Micke has been awarded the Dissertation Prize…
New BMBF quantum technology project VAUQSI launched at MPIK
The quantum technology project Many-Frequency Control of Ultrastable Qubits in Superconducting Ion Traps (Viel-Frequenz-Ansteuerung Ultrastabiler…
Novel superconducting trap for precise frequency measurements
The group led by José Crespo López-Urrutia at MPIK in collaboration with the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt has built and successfully tested a…
Timing molecular structural dynamics both excited and probed by extreme ultraviolet light
MPIK physicists of the group around Christian Ott (division of Thomas Pfeifer) demonstrated for the first time an all-XUV (extreme ultraviolet)…
Determining the structure of a molecule with laser-induced electron diffraction
Researchers show how laboratory-frame photoelectron spectra can be used directly to determine the molecular structure with atomic precision from…
X-ray double flashes control atomic nuclei
A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg has coherently controlled nuclear excitations using suitably…
Measuring chirps at extremely high frequencies
A new method provides an ultrafast plasma switch, which temporally cuts off parts of high-frequency light flashes. Carried trillions of times faster…
No longer “faster than permitted by our galaxy” ...
A collaboration between the groups of Maurice Leutenegger, José Crespo and Sven Bernitt from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MPIK, Helmholtz…
Rotation of a molecule as an "internal clock"
Using a new method, physicists at the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics have investigated the ultrafast fragmentation of hydrogen…