As part of the public outreach of the Max-Planck Society (MPG) to support school education, Dr. Alexander Weigel gave last week a presentation about current laser technology at the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Bad Homburg. At the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Dr. Weigel leads the team on Field-resolved Infrared Spectroscopy in the attoworld group of Prof. Ferenc Krausz. In his talk, pupils from three classes ranging from 9th grade to upper secondary level listened as he explained how a laser works and what a Lactobacillus bacterium in cheese has to do with the extremely short time span of one femtosecond. He made the transition from the basics of light to latest research in attosecond physics and nonlinear optics. Afterwards, the pupils in the audience took the chance to ask many questions on the details of ultrafast laser technology and the Nobel-prize-winning attosecond physics.
The talk was organized as part of the Max Planck Society's school portal , providing schools with information material on recent research topics. As part of the program, the school´s participants in the International Physics Olympiad were awarded their certificates. In addition, the pupils of the CanSat Team Hephaistos also had the opportunity to talk to Dr Fendt from the General Administration and Dr Weigel.The pupils participating in this project develop a can-sized satellite that performs a scientific mission during its decent. “I am extremely impressed by the scientific enthusiasm and physical understanding of the pupils of the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium,” says Alexander Weigel. “This is only possible due to the immense commitment of the teachers at this school, and it is a great pleasure for me to support the school on this path by giving a glimpse at the current laser research.” The Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics is looking forward to a future visit of the school classes to the PhotonLab, our dedicated laboratory giving pupils and teachers the opportunity to use latest equipment to perform own experiments with light and lasers.
Contact:
max-wissen
Dr. Tanja Fendt
email: service@max-wissen.de
PhotonLab at the MPQ
Dr. Silke Stähler-Schöpf
