Rainer Hillenbrand is leader of the Nanooptics Group at the recently established nanoscience research center CIC nanoGUNE Consolider (San Sebastian). He is also co-founder of the company Neaspec GmbH (located near Munich), which develops and manufactures near-field optical microscopes. From 1998 to 2007 he was employed at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Martinsried, Germany) where he led the Nano-Photonics Research Group from 2003 to 2007. He has obtained his PhD degree in physics from the Technical University of Munich in 2001.

Hillenbrand’s research activities include the development of ultra-high resolution infrared and terahertz near-field microscopy and its applications in material sciences, semiconductor technology and nano-photonics.


Course Contents:

1. Basics: Dielectric function, evanescent fields and surface polaritons 2. Breaking the diffraction barrier with near-field probes 3. Basics of scanning probe microscopy 4. Nanoscale optical material and device characterization 5. Near-field mapping of propagating and localized optical modes.


Series of lectures, May 25, 27 and 29, 2009, 10:00. Blue Lecture Room

Hosted by Prof. Niek van Hulst