Herbert Walther

Herbert Walther ( born January 19, 1935 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, † July 22, 2006 in Munich ) was a German physicist. He was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching.

Life and work

Walther studied physics at the University of Heidelberg, where he received his doctorate in 1962. According to research at the University of Hannover, where in 1968 his habilitation at the " Laboratoire Aimé Cotton" (1969 ) of the CNRS in Orsay and the " Joint Laboratory of Astrophysics " (1970) in Boulder, Colorado, he became in 1971 a professor at the University of Bonn and then in the same year a full professor at the University of Cologne.

From 1975 until his retirement in 2003 he was professor of experimental physics at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich. He was one of the founding directors of 1981 the newly founded Max - Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, which emerged "Laser Research" at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics from the project group. He worked there until his death.

Walther's research lay in the field of quantum optics, for example, work that led to the development of the " one-atom maser ," and the high-resolution spectroscopy of ultracold ions that are trapped in Paul traps. In addition, his staff busy with experiments on the foundations of quantum mechanics, such as the quantum eraser. Walther is co-author of over 600 scientific papers.

Awards and Honors

Walther was a regular member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and corresponding member of the North Rhine- Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences since 1983. He was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 1986), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Academia Europaea and an Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Romanian Academy of Sciences.

2008 donated by the German Physical Society and the Optical Society of America the Herbert Walther Award for significant contributions in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics.

Writings (selection )

  • Ed as: laser spectroscopy of atoms and molecules. Springer, Berlin and others 1976, ISBN 3-540-07324-8, (Topics in Applied Physics 2).
  • Edward Roy Pike ( ed.): Photons and Quantum Fluctuations. Adam Hilger, Bristol, inter alia, 1988, ISBN 0-85274-240-1, (Malvern physics series 5 ), (Special Office of Naval Research Seminar, Cortina d' Ampezzo, 21 to 22 January 1988).
  • With Bertold -Georg Englert: complementarity in quantum mechanics. In: Physics in our time, 1992, Issue 5, ISSN 0031-9252, pp. 213-220.
  • With Bertold -Georg Englert, Marlan Scully: complementarity and wave particle duality. In: Scientific American, Issue 2, February 1995, ISSN 0170-2971, pp. 50-56.
  • Quantum phenomena of a single atom. In: Physical leaves, Volume 54, 1998, ISSN 0031-9252, pp. 625-631, online
  • With Theodor W. Hänsch: Laser spectroscopy and quantum optics. In: Reviews of Modern Physics Centennial Issue, Volume 71, 1999, pp. 242f.
  • Thomas Walther: What is light? From classical optics to quantum optics. CH Beck, Munich 1999 ( Beck series, CH Beck know in 2122 ), ( 2nd edition. Ibid., 2004, ISBN 3-406-44722-8 ).
  • Quantum physics between theory and application. In: Physical leaves, Volume 56, Issue 12, December 2000, ISSN 0031-9252, pp. 57-63 (issue 100 Years of Quantum Theory ), online
  • What is light?. In Heiner Müller- Krumbhaar, Hermann- Friedrich Wagner ( Eds.): ... and he rolls yet. From researching the greats, the very small and the very many things. Wiley -VCH, Weinheim, inter alia, 2001, ISBN 3-527-40328-0, ( anthology Year of Physics 2000, the DPG, German Physical Society ).
  • With Wolfgang P. Schleich ( eds.): Elements of Quantum Information, Wiley -VCH, Weinheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-527-40725-5, ( Reprinted from: Progress of Physics 54, 2006, 8/ 10), ( State-of -the-art summary of the various projects of the ' quantum information Highway A8 ' ( competence network quantum Information A8) ).
  • Atoms in the nonclassical light leaves Physical, Volume 47, 1991, pp. 38-41, online
  • The one-atom maser: Quantum electrodynamics in a resonator and the generation of non-classical radiation fields, Physical leaves, Volume 43, 1987, p 33-39, Online
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