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Temperature and Synchrotron Radiation

Division 7

Warm or cold, light or dark: thermodynamic and radiation physics issues are the focus of Division 7.

Tasks

The main tasks of the approximately 100 employees of Division 7 on the Berlin-Charlottenburg campus are thermometry, thermal energy, cryosensorics, optical radiometry and vacuum metrology.

Metrology with synchrotron radiation, on the other hand, is the field of activity of the approximately 75 employees of Division 7 at the Berlin-Adlershof site with the synchrotron radiation sources BESSY II and Metrology Light Source (MLS).

With its research and development work, Division 7 is involved in the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR), in the future metrological topics of quantum technology, environment and climate, energy, digitization and medicine as well as in the field of nanometrology.

News

The optical constants fully describe how a material transmits, reflects, absorbs, refracts or scatters light. Their precise knowledge is therefore of central importance for optical technology. As part of the European joint projects "Advanced Traceable Metrology for Optical Constants" (ATMOC) and "14 Angstrom CMOS IC technology" (14ACMOS), PTB has started to build up a database of optical constants...

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In a cooperation project between the PTB departments “Detector Radiometry and Radiation Thermometry” and “International Cooperation”, the Federal Association for Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) and the Business Scout for Development programme of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), a simple but effective cooling effect was demonstrated on buildings in...

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Reconstructing the spatial electron density of atomic systems not only provides new insights into quantum mechanics, but also advances in areas such as material science and functional surfaces. In the photoelectric effect, photoelectrons are emitted through interaction with light...

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More news

Annual Report 2022

The year 2022 was again very successful for Division 7. Third-party funding, publications, and academic degrees on the one hand, and calibrations, reviews, and committee work on the other, remained at a high level with slightly lower staffing. Accordingly, the feedback on the work and task planning by the presidium was consistently positive....

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Head of Division

Prof. Dr. Mathias Richter

  • Head of Division 7 Temperature and Synchrotron Radiation since 2019
  • Associate Professor of Experimental Physics at the Technical University Berlin since 2004
  • Member of the board of the Freundeskreis Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e.V. since 2004
  • Member of the board of the Initiativgemeinschaft Außeruniversitärer Forschungseinrichtungen in Adlershof e. V. (IGAFA) since 2021
  • Member of the board of the Physical Society of Berlin (PGzB) since 2020
  • Member of the council of the German Physical Society (DPG) since 2021

  • Joined the PTB in August 1995
  • Habilitation in experimental physics at the Technical University Berlin (1990 to 1996)
  • Postdoc at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg and at the Université Paris-Sud XI (1988 to 1990)
  • Doctorate in physics at the University of Hamburg (1984 to 1988)
  • Diploma in physics at the University of Hamburg (1984)
  • Abitur in Marburg a. d. Lahn (1978)

  • Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2011
  • https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/207737

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