Chichkov started his scientific career in laser physics at the
P.N. Lebedev Institute of Physics in Moscow, where he worked from 1981 to 1995 as scientific researcher. From 1988 to 1990 he became
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching and stayed from 1992 to 1993 as Fellow of the
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the Institute of Laser Engineering,
Osaka University, Japan. After a visit as research scientist at the
Technical University Darmstadt and
Max-Planck-Institut für Biopysikalische Chemie, Göttingen from 1993 to 1994 he moved 1994 as a visiting research scientist to the Institut für Quantenoptik,
Leibniz Universität Hannover. From 1995 to 1997 he became scientific researcher at the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. and did his Habilitation in physics at the Leibniz Universität Hannover in 1997. From 1997 to 2000 Chichkov worked as guest professor at the Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover and from 2000 to 2001 as Senior Scientific Researcher at the Institut für Angewandte Physik,
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena. He was head of the strategy group at Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. from 2001 to 2004, and subsequently headed the
nanotechnology department from 2004 to 2017. Since 2009 he is professor of physics at the Leibniz Universität Hannover. == Research ==