Dr. Li-Wei Wei (he/him/his)
Location Hannover
Main Focus
I am an experimental physicist specialized in optics and photonics, high-power fiber lasers, laser power stabilization, precision interferometry with optical cavities, and the numerical modelling of electromagnetic waves. I have been applying my optics background to large-scale experiments that address some of the most fundamental questions in physics, the detection of gravitational waves, on earth and in space, and the nature of the Dark Matter.
I am currently leading the optical verification activities on the Interferometric Detection System (IDS) of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) space mission at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany. With a planned launch in 2035, LISA will be the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves.
Curriculum Vitae
Previously (2020-2024) I held a fellowship position at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) for the realization of the Any Light Particle Search II (ALPS II) experiment in Hamburg. ALPS II features high-power lasers, high-finesse optical cavities, single-photon counting detectors and superconducting dipole magnets. The ALPS II experiment searches for hypothetical axion-like particles that can shed light on the strong CP problem in particle physics as well as the nature of the Dark Matter if detected. My involvement with the ALPS II experiment began as a postdoctoral researcher at the AEI (2016-2019).
For my doctoral researches (2012-2015), I worked on the high-power laser system for the Advanced Virgo gravitational wave detector that featured the coherent combination of fiber laser amplifiers and laser power stabilization with high-photocurrent photodiode arrays.
I hold a B.Sc. in Photonics from National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan (2008), a M.Sc.Tech. in Optics, Material and Plasma from the Institut d’Optique ParisTech, Palaiseau, France (2011), a M.Sc.Eng. in Photonics Engineering, Automatic Control and Robotics from the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland (2011), and a Ph.D. in Physics from the Université de Nice, France (2015).