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Franz X. Kärtner
Ultrafast Optics and X-rays
Franz Kärtner heads the Ultrafast Optics and X-rays Group at DESY and is also Professor of Physics at the University of Hamburg. From January 2024 to 2025, he served as Acting Director of the Photon Science Division at DESY. His main area of research is the control of photons and electrons with ever-increasing precision, currently in the range of a few attoseconds, in order to enable novel ultrafast photon and electron sources from the terahertz to the X-ray range. These techniques can both lead to compact table-top sources and contribute to kilometre-long free-electron lasers such as the European XFEL X-ray laser.
Such sources enable new methods to advance our understanding of the structure and function of matter. Key technologies include synchronisation systems with femtosecond to attosecond precision for X-ray free-electron lasers, cryogenic lasers for generating ultrashort pulses with high energy (joule) at high average power (kilowatt) as well as nano-plasmonic field emission cathodes. In combination, these technologies enable a variety of new sources and their applications, such as multi-octave high-energy light waves and coherent free-electron lasers based on terahertz and optical undulators to generate attosecond pulses in the soft and hard X-ray range.
Academic career
| 2024-2025 | Acting Director of the DESY Photon Science Division |
| since 2011 |
Lead Scientist at DESY at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Head of the Ultrafast Optics and X-rays Group Professor of Physics, University of Hamburg |
| 2011-2015 | Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, USA |
| 2005-2010 | Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, USA |
| 2001 - 2005 | Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, USA |
| 1999 - 2001 | Professor of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, KIT, Karlsruhe |
| 1998-1999 | Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, USA |
| 1993-1997 | Habilitation in Experimental Physics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
| 1991-1993 | Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, MIT, USA |
| 1989-1991 | Postdoctoral Associate, Technical University of Munich |
| 1986-1989 | PhD in Microwave Engineering, Technical University of Munich |
| 1985 -1986 | Diploma in Microwave Engineering, Technical University of Munich |
| 1981-1985 | Student, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Munich |
| 1979-1980 | Student, Dept. of Power Engineering, University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg |
Memberships
| Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) |
| Optical Society of America (OSA) |
| International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) |
| American Physical Society (APS) |
| German Physical Society (DPG) |
| Scientific Advisory Committee of the Max Born Institute, Berlin |
| Editorial Board of Journal of Physics B |
