Biomedical Photonics
The research of the medical optics group is focused upon the investigation of various possibilities to employ pulsed infrared lasers in new medical disciplines and the optimization of the clinical outcome in fields the laser is already being used. Emphasis is placed upon three independent fields:
(1) The study of the physical processes underlying the light propagation in tissue and the interaction of pulsed IR-laser radiation with soft and hard tissues,
(2) laser-induced reversible and irreversible changes in optical properties of tissue response and the consequence of these changes on thermal damage and ablation, and
(3) the development of laser and fiber delivery systems optimized for specific medical applications, in particular arthroscopy, ENT-surgery and ophthalmology.
Another area of interest is the development of appropriate optical tools for tissue diagnostics and tissue characterization that can be used for an intelligent feed back system or for tissue imaging. One approach used is the measurement of tissue properties by time-resolved detection of laser-induced transient pressure waves (optoacoustics).
Laser Physics
The laser physics group is working along a number of those lines, such as:
- Solid state and fiber laser design
- Polarization mode engineering of laser radiation
- Spatial and temporal beam shaping
- Spectroscopy of rare earth doped crystals, ZBLAN fibers, and sol-gel fabricated glasses
- Laser-induced surface modification, microstructuring, and selective laser sintering
- X-ray lasers, especially their time duration, efficiency, and coherence
- Ultrafast optics
- Coherent control of quantum systems
- Novel photonic materials, structures, and devices
- Simulation of electromagnetic field propagation
- Coherent THz spectroscopy
Microwave Physics
Water vapor and ozone are important molecules in the atmosphere. Ozone protects the biosphere from harmful UV-radiation from the sun. Water vapor is the most important natural green house gas and affects radiative processes. A lot is known about atmospheric processes involving these constituents. However there are many open questions. Just to mention a few: is the depletion of ozone getting weaker, is water vapor increasing due to global warming, how is water vapor entering the stratosphere, how are the links between these trace gases.
In order to address these questions observations of high quality are needed. Our research group developed unique microwave radiometers that allow to detect the microwave emission of atmospheric molecules what allows to retrieve their distribution. Based on the excellent data from our instruments complemented from other platforms such as balloons and satellites we perform atmospheric studies usually in collaboration with international teams.
The other weight of our research is dedicated to the development of new techniques in the microwave and submillimeter region. For this purpose we operate state of the art electromagnetic and optical models and we dispose of excellent measuring equipment for the characterisation of radiation at frequencies up to the THz-regime. Polarimetric imaging and techniques to model farfield antenna pattern from near field measurements are just a few of our present research topics.