master and bachelor theses in physics & chemistry
Our group continuously offers exciting bachelor and master projects in all areas of our research.
what we do
We would like to understand how complex materials and light interact and how we can control and utilize the relevant processes. Once light is absorbed in condensed matter (solids, soft matter/molecules, liquids), the system is in a non-equilibrium situation, immediately seeking equilibration in order to minimize its energy. Electrons interact with each other and with the atoms in their vicinity, which may lead to – sometimes coherent – lattice vibrations. A whole zoo of interesting phenomena can occur: for example, some insulators become metals when they are illuminated with light, or positive and negative charges are being separated from each other despite their attraction, a process which is utilized in solar cells.
All of these exciting phenomena start with extremely fast processes (called “ultrafast”) that occur within femtoseconds (1 fs = 0.000000000000001 s). In order to shoot real time movies of such processes on these ultrashort timescales, we use very specialized “high speed cameras” to perform ultrafast spectroscopy.
what we offer
When you join the group, no matter which project, you will be working with one of our femtosecond laser systems to shoot real time movies on ultrafast timescales and to elucidate the ultrafast dynamics caused by light absorption in your samples.
We offer projects in both, physics and chemistry, depending on your background and interest! Your project could, for instance, be dealing with…
… strong correlation phenomena (physics)
… hybrid inorganic/organic systems (physics/chemistry)
… femtoelectrochemistry (physics/chemistry)
In any case, you will be working closely in a small, motivated, international, and friendly team of scientists at different career levels (doctoral students, postdocs, group leader).
who we are looking for
Most importantly, you should be a curious student of Physics or Chemistry who enjoys solving challenging riddles. Everything else is secondary! German language skills are not mandatory.
Master/bachelor theses of students at the Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and Universität Potsdam are generally always possible, but also collaborations with other universities from abroad are realizable.
If you are interested in joining the electron dynamiX group as our next bachelor or master student, please send your CV to electrondynamix@fhi-berlin.mpg.de!