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physicsworld.comCareersSupportinglaserscienceIf the laser in your laboratory isnot working, your first port ofcall (after the instructionmanual!) will be someone likeHarald Ellmann, whosefascination with practicalproblem-solving led to a careerin technical supportThe end of the line Harald Ellmann’s job allows him to contribute to science by solving other researchers’ problems.I first heard the phrase “a physicist can doanything” when I was pondering my optionsafter I finished secondary school. But evenafter I finally decided to embark on a degreein physics, I could not have imagined howtrue this would be. In my case, although Istarted out wanting to be a scientist, physicshas instead led me to a career that involveshelping scientists solve problems, as the servicemanager of a medium-sized laser firm,Toptica Photonics.My undergraduate studies took placeat the Ludwig-Maxmilians-Universität inMun ich, Germany, during the early 1990s,but I did my diploma thesis externally atSweden’s Stockholm University. As a memberof the new laser-cooling project there,my task was to set up an experiment almostfrom scratch. One important aspect of thiswork was to build inexpensive diode lasersand the electronics needed to control them.One year into the project it dawned on methat I had not done any real science yet. Bythen, my aspiration was to be a scientist, andI therefore decided to take the next step bydoing a PhD in the same research group.In the years that followed, however, I discoveredthat instead of being attracted toproblems of fundamental physics, I wasmore keen on overcoming the technicalhurdles that prevented the experimentsfrom working.After I finished my PhD, I had to decidewhat to do next. Fortunately, I came acrossan advertisement from Toptica, which waslooking for a physicist to be its service manager.The company was certainly not un -58known to me; in fact, by the time my re searchcolleagues and I had finished our first re -liable diode-laser systems in the late 1990s,we received flyers from a start-up firmnamed “TuiLaser” (which eventually be -came Toptica) advertising almost the samelasers that we had just built. Thus, the jobrequirements were an almost perfect matchwith my skills, and after seven years inSweden I re turned to Munich.Troubleshooting for physicistsWhen Toptica began trading in the mid-1990s, its core market consisted of governmentinstitutes like the Max Planck Instituteof Quantum Optics or the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt that were in -volved in the rapidly evolving field ofexperimental quantum optics. Since then,the product portfolio has expanded fromdiode lasers to fibre lasers and optical-storagetesters, which are devices used to checkMost of my time isdedicated to support:if someone’s laseris not working, thenI am one of thepeople they callthe reproduction quality of Blu-ray discs atmass-production sites. The customer basehas broadened too: in addition to institutesand universities, it now also spans a steadilygrowing range of industrial partners, withapplications in materials processing, micro -scopy and optical-storage technology.Despite this, the scientific market still representsthe core of Toptica’s business. Oneconsequence of this is that the firm is followingan “open” approach to laser design,meaning that its customers have nearly unrestrictedaccess to the inner workings of theirlasers, so that they can adapt their devices totheir individual needs. As a result, most ofmy working time is dedicated to direct technicalsupport: in other words, if someone’slaser is not working, then I am one of thepeople they call. In addition to helping troubleshootproducts, in quite a few cases I alsoact as an application advisor – offering suggestionson, for example, schemes for activefrequency stabilization. Here it is certainlyhelpful to be able to tap into the vast pool ofknowledge within Toptica: about 25% of my85 colleagues have a PhD, predominantly inphysics, and more than 50% of all em ployeeshave an academic background in either phys -ics or engineering.The other important side of my job as “servicemanager” is to establish customer serviceas a distinct entity within the company.In a nutshell, this means I am working onintroducing structure and scalability into thefirm’s service processes so that we are preparedfor the ongoing growth of the company.We have, for example, implemented aPhysics World May 2010