hkreckel.de / Holger Kreckel

Holger Kreckel



CV



EMPLOYMENT
2012 - present Independent Research Group leader (ERC starting grant),
Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany .
2009-2012 Research Scientist, Chemistry Department, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA .
2007-2009 Postdoctoral Researcher, Astrophysics Laboratory,
Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA.
2004-2007 Postdoctoral Researcher,
Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany.

EDUCATION
2003 Doctorate Dr. rer. nat (doctorate in nat. sciences) in Physics, Summa Cum Laude, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Advisor: Professor Andreas Wolf.
Thesis: Internal Excitations of Stored Triatomic Hydrogen Molecular Ions.
2000 Diploma Diploma in Physics, University of Heidelberg. Advisors: Profs. Dirk Schwalm and Andreas Wolf. Thesis: Coulomb Explosion Imaging of H3+.
1996 Vordiplom Vordiplom in Physics, University of Siegen, Germany

TEACHING
Winter Semester
2012/2013
Tutor Physics III
(Quantum Mechanics and Optics)
Summer Semester
2012
Lecture: Molecular Astrophysics
(with D. ASemenov MPIA)
March 2007 Organizer high-school open day Physik am Samstagmorgen at MPI-K Heidelberg.
2004-2006 Tutor, Seminar on At. and Mol. Physics, Heidelberg University.
2001-2002 Instructor Advanced Laboratory class, Heidelberg University.
2001- present Supervisor to ~10 diploma/graduate students.

VISITS
December 2007 Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
July-Sept. 2006 Columbia University, New York City, USA.
May-June 2004 Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

SERVICE
Reviewer NSF Proposal Review
Referee Journal of Physical Chemistry.
Referee Theoretical Chemistry Accounts.
Referee Journal of Chemical Physics.
Referee Journal of Physics: Conference Series.
Safety Officer Ion trap/laser laboratory, Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics.

PATENT
Ion Deflector for two-dimensional control of ion beam cross sectional spread, H. Kreckel, H. Bruhns, D.W. Savin, Columbia Technology Ventures, US utility patent application, serial number 12/708,886 (2009).


FUNDING
Principal Investigator, ERC Starting Grant 2012, ASTROLAB: Cold Collisions and the Pathways toward Life in Interstellar Space.

Co-Principal Investigator, D.W. Savin, H. Kreckel, Improved Understanding of Molecular Clouds and Emission Line Objects with Laboratory Astrophysics Studies at the Heidelberg Ion Storage Ring, NSF program: Galactic Astronomy, July 2008 - 2011.

RESEARCH
SCRIBES
Experiment Design
[UIUC]
Designed and built ion optics and mass spectrometer for the SCRIBES (Sensitive Cooled Resolved Ion BEam Spectroscopy) instrument, enabling high-resolution cavity-enhanced spectroscopy with beams of astrophysically relevant molecular ions.
A.A. Mills et al., J. Chem. Phys. 135, 224201 (2011).

Cavity Ringdown
Spectroscopy
[UIUC]
Performed cavity ring-down spectroscopy of para-enriched H3+ with a pulsed supersonic expansion source. Carried out high-resolution storage ring experiments of dissociative recombination of ortho- and para H3+.
Kreckel et al., Phys. Rev. A 82, 042715 (2010).

Nuclear Spin of
Interstellar H3+
[UIUC]
Model calculatons on the spin-temperature of interstellar H3+, considering the influence of dissociative recombination and collisions with H2.
Crabtree et al., Astrophys. J. 729, 15 (2011).

Molecular Hydrogen
Formation in the
Early Universe
[Columbia]
Developed the first merged beams experiment for anion-neutral chemistry. Performed energy-resolved measurements of the associative detachment reaction H- + H → H2 + e, relevant for first star formation.
Kreckel et al., Science 329, 69 (2010),
featured in: Science (Perspectives), 329, 45 (2010).


Interstellar Model
Calculations
[Columbia]
Updated the Meudon PDR code to examine the influence of new atomic di-electronic recombination rates in photon-dominated regions.
Bryans et al., Astrophys. J. 694, 286 (2009).

Structure and Stability
of H2-
[MPI-K]
Performed Coulomb Explosion Imaging experiments, recording the wave function of the metastable molecular hydrogen anion H2.
Jordon-Thaden et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 193003 (2011).

Chemical Probing
Spectroscopy
[MPI-K]
Devised an ultra-sensitive infrared action spectroscopy scheme to detect H3+ lines above the barrier to linearity. Observed the weakest H3+ transitions recorded to date.
Kreckel et al., J. Chem. Phys. 119, 164312 (2008).

Dissociative
Recombination
of Cold H3+
[MPI-K]
Performed Dissociative Recombination (DR) experiments with rovibrationally cold H3+ ions using a cryogenic 22-pole ion trap injector. Carried out the first nuclear spin sensitive DR experiments.
Kreckel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 263201 (2005),
featured in: Nature (News and Views), 440, 157 (2005).


Cryogenic rf
Ion Trap
[MPI-K]
Constructed a cryogenic 22-pole radiofrequency (rf) ion trap for cooling of molecular ions down to 10 K. Devised an effective timing scheme to extract and inject H3+ ions into the TSR storage ring.
Kreckel et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 4, 126 (2005)

Vibrational
and Rotational
Cooling of H3+
[MPI-K]
Performed Coulomb Explosion Imaging experiments, recording the wave functions of single H3+ ions at the TSR storage ring to monitor vibrational cooling. Created a comprehensive rovibrational relaxation model, solving for the radiative decay.
Kreckel et al., New J. Phys. 6, 151 (2004).
Kreckel et al, Phys. Rev. A 66, 052509 (2002).


INVITED TALKS
11. SMILES 2010, Spectroscopy of Molecular Ions in the Laboratory and in (Extraterrestrial) Space, Kos, Greece, "Experimental results for H2 formation from H- and H and implications for first star formation".
10. DR 2010, The 8th International Conference on Dissociative Recombination, Granlibakken, Lake Tahoe, CA, USA, "Storage ring measurements of the dissociative recombination of H3+: a closer look".
9. DAMOP 2010, Division of Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society. Houston, TX, USA, "Molecular hydrogen formation in the early universe: new implications from laboratory measurements".
8. PCSIB 2008, Symposium on Physics with Cold Stored Ion Beams, Heidelberg, Germany, "Neutral-ion collisions in merged beams experiments".
7. ICPEAC 2007, The XXV International Conference on Photonic, Electronic, and Atomic Collisions, Freiburg, Germany, "Electron collisions and rovibrational action spectroscopy of cold H3+ molecules".
6. RF 2006, Symposium on RF ion traps: Technique and Applications in Reaction Dynamics and Spectroscopy, Chemnitz, Germany, "Preparing a state selected H3+ beam using a storage ion source and a 22 pole trap".
5. RSM 2006, Royal Society Meeting on Physics, Chemistry and Astronomy of H3+, London, UK, "Rotational and vibrational cooling of H3+ in laboratory experiments".
4. ESF 2005, European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on Ultracold Chemistry, Mulhouse, France, "The low temperature frontier in molecular ion collision experiments".
3. DR 2004, The 6th International Conference on Dissociative Recombination, Mosbach, Germany, "Towards state selective measurements of the H3+ DR rate coefficient".
2. ETR 2001, European Training Network Meeting on Electron Transfer Reactions, Prague, Czech Republic, "Monitoring internal excitations at the TSR".
1. SALA 2000, Meeting on Atomic and Molecular Physics with Accelerators, Aarhus, Denmark, "Lifetimes of excited states of H3+ studied by Coulomb explosion imaging".


COLLOQUIA
6. Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, March 25th 2011.
5. Astronomy Colloquium, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, November 17th 2009.
4. Colloquium, Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Vienna, May 4th 2006.
3. Kaffeepalaver, Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, November 10th 2005.
2. Quantenseminar, Freiburg University, November 23rd 2005.
1. Kaffeepalaver, Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, July 27th 2000.



DEPARTMENTAL SEMINARS
6. Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany, June 15th 2011.
5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, June 27th 2008.
4. Chicago University, USA, August 18th 2005.
3. University of California San Diego, USA, December 3rd 2005.
2. Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, May 20th 2004.
1. Chemnitz University, Germany, June 23rd 2000.



Updated: Feb 1 2013 H. Kreckel