Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics: The COLTRIMS multi-particle imaging technique-new Insight into the World of Correlation

The correlated many-particle dynamics in Coulombic systems, which is one of the unsolved fundamental problems in AMO-physics, can now be experimentally approached with so far unprecedented completeness and precision. The recent development of the COLTRIMS technique (COLd Target Recoil Ion Momentum Spectroscopy) provides a coincident multi-fragment imaging technique for eV and sub-eV fragment detection. In its completeness it is as powerful as the bubble chamber in high energy physics. In recent benchmark experiments quasi snapshots (duration as short as an atto-sec) of the correlated dynamics between electrons and nuclei has been made for atomic and molecular objects. This new imaging technique has opened a powerful observation window into the hidden world of many-particle dynamics. Recent multiple-ionization studies will be presented and the observation of correlated electron pairs will be discussed.