March 26th 2025

RIGOROSUM

Alexander EBER
Coherent sensing of atmospheric trace gases for environmental monitoring

Alexander Eber successfully defended his doctoral thesis „Coherent sensing of atmospheric trace gases for environmental monitoring“ on March 26th 2025. We could invite Prof. Mark Wenig, LMU Munich, to Graz as second reviewer who is an expert on remote sensing of air pollutants and other atmospheric parameters

Congratulations, Alexander!

March 3rd 2025

International Women´s Day

Together with Young Academy Co-Member Jillian Petersen, I got the opportunity to present my research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. "Searching for Trace Gases and Species in the Sea and Atmosphere" was the title of the event on the eve of International Women's Day at the OeAW. It was great to discuss how our complex environment is connected and how we try to learn about it across different scientific disciplines.

Keine Exzellenz ohne Frauen

An interview (in German) related to this occasion can be found here: Ohne Vorbilder in die Forschung

© TU Graz
© TU Graz / Vice President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Ulrike Diebold |ÖAW/Ludwig Schedl
© TU Graz / Class President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Christiane Wendehorst |ÖAW/Ludwig Schedl
© TU Graz / Biologist Jillian Petersen |ÖAW/Ludwig Schedl
© TU Graz / Birgitta Schultze-Bernhardt |ÖAW/Ludwig Schedl

February 24th 2025

Publication Alert

Adrian’s work on “Ultra-broadband UV/VIS spectroscopy enabled by resonant dispersive wave emission of a frequency comb” got published in Optics Express!

Congratulations, Adrian!

Ultra-broadband UV/VIS spectroscopy enabled by resonant dispersive wave emission of a frequency comb

February 13th 2025

RIGOROSUM

Lukas Fürst
Ultraviolet Dual Comb Spectroscopy

Lukas Fürst successfully defended his doctoral thesis „Ultraviolet Dual Comb Spectroscopy“ on February 13th 2025. We could invite Prof. Sandrine Galtier, Université Claude Bernard Lyon, to Graz as second reviewer.

Congratulations, Lukas!

February 11th 2025

Our Coherent Sensing Lab 4 is now equipped with two optical tables!

Big thanks to Rupert, Christoph, Werner, Adrian, Armin, Elias, Robert and Mithun for implementing the ~ 1 ton optical tables! The Coherent Sensing Lab 4 is ready for spectroscopic equipment.😊

January 2025

Visit from Lille

Arno Mussot from the University of Lille, France, visited us with his postdoctoral fellow Debanuj Chatterjee and some fibers for spectral broadening and pulse compression for the next level of ultra broadband dual comb spectroscopy.

Thanks, Arno and Deb, for your visit! We had lots of fun with you in the lab and in the Wirtshaus!😊

December 2024

Full house with Ferenc Krausz

Nobel laureate Ferenc Krausz visited Graz and the IEP in December 2024. We were so proud while giving him a lab tour! This exceptional day peaked in Ferenc’s inspiring evening talk “Sub-atomic motions probe human health”, this year’s BioTechMed Nobel lecture. We counted more than 500 visitors, our grand lecture hall P1 was too small for so many science enthusiasts.

Thank you so much for coming!

Nobelpreisträger Prof. Ferenc Krausz , Noble Lecture an der TU Graz
Nobelpreisträger Prof. Ferenc Krausz , Noble Lecture an der TU Graz
Nobelpreisträger Prof. Ferenc Krausz , Noble Lecture an der TU Graz
Nobelpreisträger Prof. Ferenc Krausz , Noble Lecture an der TU Graz

September 23rd 2024

Wolf Outstanding Student Paper Prize

Lukas receives the Wolf Student Paper Prize at the Frontiers in Optics (FIO) Conference in Denver for the work entitled

"Near-ultraviolet Dual-comb Spectroscopy / Absolute Absorption Cross Section of Formaldehyde"

Congratulations, Lukas!

July 2024

Christoph GRUBER joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Christoph!

April 10th 2024

Our novel broadband UV dual comb spectrometer becomes official!

Congratulations, Lukas!

The world’s first broadband UV dual comb spectrometer revolutionizes air pollutant analysis. It enables real-time tracking of pollutants and their reactions with the environment. The work got now published in OPTICA.

Check out more details
Press release:
Novel UV Broadband Spectrometer Revolutionises Air Pollutand Analysis

Puplication:
Broadband near-ultraviolet dual comb spectroscopy

NAWI Graz, Kooperation zwischen TU Graz und KF Universität Graz
© Lunghammer

February 12th 2024

The work of our first field deployed dual comb spectrometer got published!

Congratulations, Alex!

We successfully tracked the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the city of Graz. We achieved a temporal resolution of one minute and a detection sensitivity of only 5 ppb.
To our knowledge, this is the first mobile dual comb spectrometer capable of measuring NO2.

Check out more details:
Coherent field sensing of nitrogen dioxide (optica.org)

February 8th 2024

Dual Poster Presentation on Dual Comb Spectroscopy

Armin and Elias show their posters in parallel on this year`s first DocDay!

January 29th 2024

Coherent Sensing Group meets Anne L’Huillier

Group Excursion to the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in Vienna for this year’s ISTA Lecture:
Anne L’Huillier talked about “Attosecond Pulses For Studying Ultrafast Electron Dynamics”. The most important step towards attosecond pulses is high harmonic generation that has been studied extensively by Anne L’Huillier and that plays also a crucial part in our Project ELFIS, funded by the ERC.

January 26th 2024

Coherent Sensing Group visits Ball der Technik

Part of the team entered “one of the nicest balls of Austria”!

News Archive

September 2023

Elias EHL joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Elias!

September 2023

Emily HRUSKA joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Emily!

July 2023

Mithun PAL joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Mithun!

June 2023

Coherent Sensing Group in June 2023

From left to right: Robert Di Vora, Adrian Kirchner, Birgitta Schultze-Bernhardt, Lukas Fürst, Armin Speletz, Alexander Eber. Not on the picture: Kevin Nusshold.

May 2023

Armin SPELETZ joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Armin!

April 2023

Group Excursion to the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in Vienna: The German Physical Society (DPG) and the Austrian Physical Society (ÖPG) organized this year`s Lise Meitner Lecture with the ÖAW. Donna Strickland shared her insights and experiences with quite different aspects of chirped pulse amplification in her talk on “Generating High-Intensity, Ultrashort Optical Pulses”.

Event link: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/news/ultrakurze-lichtpulse

From left to right: Lukas Fürst, Alexander Eber, Birgitta Bernhardt, Adrian Kircher, Robert Di Vora, together with Archduke Rainer Ferdinand from Austria.
Donna Strickland talking about her first struggles with high harmonic generation.

October 2022

With the start of my university professorship, we are expanding our research focus as Coherent Sensing group to applied environmental sciences including atmospheric monitoring, trace gas sensing and the investigation of novel materials for photo-voltaics.

Stay tuned for the latest developments, open positions or contact me directly:
bernhardtnoSpam@tugraz.at

October 2022

Robert DI VORA joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Robert!

Juni 2022

Adrian KIRCHNER joins our team

 

Herzlich Willkommen, Adrian!

April 2022

"Wie man mit Lasern fotografiert"

Read about our latest research projects in our contribution to the
ÖAW Junge Akademie Blog @ DER STANDARD

February 2022

First NUV Dual Comb Spectroscopy

Lukas Fürst optimizing his first interferogram, produced by two interfering near-ultraviolet frequency combs.

October 2021

First field campaign of dual comb spectroscopy in Europe

Inital measurements of our urban atmosphere above the TUG Campus Neue Technik, together with the Lienhart Group, Geodesy, TU Graz

September 2021

Lukas FÜRST joins the team

 

Herzlich Willkommen Lukas!

July 2021

Dual Comb Spectroscopy Lab II starts operating

Our spectroscopic investigations can be expanded thanks to our new second laboratory!

May 2021

ERC Starting Grant ELFIS launches

ELFIS rocks! Stay tuned for our next-level spectroscopy platform in the EXTREME Ultraviolet brought to you by the European Research Council!

March 2021

Alexander EBER joins the team

 

Herzlich Willkommen Alex!

Dezember 2020

FWF START Project ELFIS starts

Electronic Fingerprint Spectroscopy unravels photo-induced dynamics in the near ultraviolet spectral region.

© Lunghammer

3rd September 2020

ERC STARTING GRANT 2020 PRIZE

Birgitta Bernhardt receives the renowned prize for her project to investigate the interaction between UV light and matter in spectral ranges that have not yet been extensively researched.

TUG Pressemitteilung

ERC

© FWF/Sabine Hoffmann

17th June 2020

FWF START 2020 PRIZE

With her project Electronic Fingerprint Spectroscopy, Birgitta Bernhardt will develop a novel spectrometer that enables a closer look onto electron dynamics in molecules.

TUG Pressemitteilung

FWF

June 2020:

Online Video

Have a quick look what we are up to:

Iodine Cell

March 2020

VIS Spectrometer ready

Our VIS Dual Comb Spectrometer starts its operation.
Central wavelength: 515nm

July 2019

Our article
"Ultrafast quantum control of ionization dynamics in krypton"
was one of the most read* Nature Communications physics articles in 2018!

*Check out the full collection of Nature Communications:
Top 50: Physics

Contact
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Institut of Experimental Physics
Graz University of Technology
Petersgasse 16
8010 Graz
Austria

Group Leader
Birgitta BERNHARDT,
Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Phys. (Univ.) Dr.rer.nat.

Tel.: +43 (0) 316 / 873 - 8663
Fax: +43 (0) 316 / 873 - 8655

bernhardt@tugraz.at