Rate My Professor Stefan Witte

Stefan Witte is the Professor of Optics for Nanoscale Metrology in the Department of Imaging Physics within the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Delft University of Technology. Appointed in September 2024, his position is supported by the TU Delft Excellence Fund, allowing him to rapidly establish his research group by appointing researchers and building experimental setups. Previously, from 2014, he led the EUV Generation and Imaging research group and served as Head of the Metrology Department at the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL). Concurrently, since 2019, he held the position of associate professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Earlier in his career, Witte conducted postdoctoral research at JILA, University of Colorado, focusing on ultrafast electron dynamics and lensless imaging with high-harmonic sources, and at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on nonlinear microscopy and biomedical imaging. He earned his PhD cum laude in 2007 from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with a thesis on intense ultrafast laser development and precision spectroscopy using frequency combs.

Witte's research specializes in advanced optical techniques for nanoscale metrology, particularly the generation of ultrafast extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light fields and their application in high-resolution imaging of three-dimensional nanostructures, such as those found in computer chips with features mere nanometers in size. He develops lensless microscopy methods and photoacoustic imaging to visualize opaque multilayered structures by generating sound waves with light pulses. His pioneering contributions have earned him prestigious awards, including the ERC Starting Grant in 2014, the ERC Consolidator Grant in 2019, and the NWO VICI grant in 2022. Additionally, he serves as a Principal Investigator in the NWO-TTW Perspectief consortium LINX, dedicated to lensless imaging with soft X-rays. As a principal scientist in Imaging Physics, Witte emphasizes optics as an enabling technology for micro- and nanoscale research, fostering collaborations across and beyond the faculty to advance imaging applications.