Peter E. Toschek
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Peter E. Toschek (18 April 1933 – 25 June 2020) was a German experimental physicist who researched
nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...
,
quantum optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum chemistry that studies the behavior of photons (individual quanta of light). It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons and their interaction ...
, and
laser physics Laser science or laser physics is a branch of optics that describes the theory and practice of lasers. Laser science is principally concerned with quantum electronics, laser construction, optical cavity design, the physics of producing a po ...
. He is known as a pioneer of
laser spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectrosc ...
and for the first demonstration of single trapped atoms (ions). He was a professor at
Hamburg University The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen''), the Hamburg Colon ...
.


Biography

Toschek studied physics in
Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
and
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
. Supervised by
Wolfgang Paul Wolfgang Paul (; 10 August 1913 – 7 December 1993) was a German physicist, who co-developed the non-magnetic quadrupole mass filter which laid the foundation for what is now called an ion trap. He shared one-half of the Nobel Prize in Ph ...
, he defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1961. The topic of his dissertation was the scattering of Gallium atoms in defined Zeeman states by Argon and Helium. In 1963, he became a research assistant at the Institute for Applied Physics at
Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...
. There he founded the first German research group for laser spectroscopy which was soon joined by Theodor Hänsch (doctorate 1969). Toschek completed his habilitation in experimental physics in 1968. In 1972, he became a Professor at Heidelberg. In 1981, he accepted a chair in experimental physics at the
University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...
. There he and Günter Huber founded the Institute for Laser Physics in 1989. From 1980 to 1990, Toschek co-edited
Optics Communications ''Optics Communications'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It covers all fields of optical science and technology and was established in 1969. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: *Chemical ...
. Peter Toschek worked at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
with Tony Siegman (1972), at the Laboratoire Aimé Cotton in
Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...
, France, (1978/79), and as a Fellow of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) in
Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...
, Colorado (1986/87). He retired in 1998, but continued to be a scientifically active part of the Institute for Laser Physics.


Research

Since the 1960s, Peter Toschek and his associates developed new methods of
laser spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectrosc ...
like Doppler-free saturation spectroscopy as well as the extremely sensitive intra-cavity absorption spectroscopy (ICAS). They observed non-linear interactions of light with atoms like self-induced transparency of an absorber, and like the generation of singular optical oscillations (solitons). In 1978, Toschek‘s research group was the first to demonstrate the cooling of atoms by laser light, just before
David Wineland David Jeffery Wineland (born February 24, 1944) is an American physicist at the Physical Measurement Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). His most notable contributions include the laser cooling of trapped ...
and co-workers. After Peter Toschek and
Hans Georg Dehmelt Hans Georg Dehmelt (; 9 September 1922 – 7 March 2017) was a German and American physicist, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989, for co-developing the ion trap technique (Penning trap) with Wolfgang Paul, for which they shared one-h ...
having proposed, in 1975, a scheme for the realization and observation of single atomic ions, Werner Neuhauser, Martin Hohenstatt and Peter Toschek demonstrated in 1978, for the first time, the trapping and visual observation of a single atom, a Barium ion, which had been cooled by laser light down to a few mK above absolute zero temperature, and confined within a miniature quadrupole
ion trap An ion trap is a combination of electric field, electric and/or magnetic fields used to capture charged particles — known as ions — often in a system isolated from an external environment. Atomic and molecular ion traps have a number of a ...
. This achievement made feasible the manipulation, quantum measurement and spectroscopy of individual atomic ions. On such quantum objects Toschek and associates observed for the first time and reported in 1986 Niels Bohr's metaphorical "quantum jumps", simultaneously with and independent of similar observations by
Hans Georg Dehmelt Hans Georg Dehmelt (; 9 September 1922 – 7 March 2017) was a German and American physicist, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1989, for co-developing the ion trap technique (Penning trap) with Wolfgang Paul, for which they shared one-h ...
and co-workers. Other achievements include the first demonstration of a two-photon laser (1981), the quenching of quantum noise (in the difference frequency signal of two laser emission lines) by correlated spontaneous emission (1990), stochastic cooling of single ions (1995), the observation of the oscillation dynamics of trapped ions (1998), atomic interferometry on a single ion (1999) and unambiguous evidence of impeded evolution of an unstable quantum system by the system's observation, the Quantum Zeno effect (2000). Toschek’s former students or associates include Bernd Appasamy, Valery Baev, Rainer Blatt, Klaus-Jochen Boller, Philippe Courteille, Jürgen Eschner, Theodor Hänsch, Werner Neuhauser, Ingo Siemers, Ingo Steiner, and Zhang Dao-Zhong.


Awards

In 1990 Peter Toschek received the Robert Wichard Pohl Prize of the
German Physical Society The German Physical Society (German: , DPG) is the oldest organisation of physicists. As of 2022, the DPG's worldwide membership is cited as 52,220, making it one of the largest national physics societies in the world. The DPG's membership peaked ...
(DPG). He has been a member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg since 1994. In 2002, Toschek became a Fellow of the
Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...
(OSA). In 2015 he received the Herbert Walther Award, jointly awarded by DPG and OSA.


References


Works

* With Werner Neuhauser: Einzelne Ionen für die dopplerfreie Spektroskopie. In: Physikalische Blätter 36, Nr. 7, 1980, S. 198–202, doi:10.1002/phbl.19800360714. * Das Einzelion — Quantenpräparat und Idealuhr. In: Physikalische Blätter 46, Nr. 7, 1990, S. 213–219, doi:10.1002/phbl.19900460706. * Was enthüllt ein beobachtetes Atom seinem Beobachter? Berichte aus den Sitzungen der Joachim Jungius-Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften e.V., Hamburg, Jahrgang 23 (2005), Heft 1. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005,


External links


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Toschek, Peter 1933 births 2020 deaths University of Bonn alumni German experimental physicists 20th-century German physicists Academic staff of the University of Hamburg University of Göttingen alumni