The Initiatives

ultra optics - Jena

Centre for Innovation Competence

The 21st century is being considered by many decision-makers in science, industry and society as the century of light. In fully optical networks, light will revolutionize information technology. Self-learning algorithms for light- induced processes will help to synthesize through coherent control chemical processes on single molecules into so-called designer molecules for new medical drugs. Light will create totally new minimal invasive methods for medical diagnosis and therapy. It will be used for measuring and microscopy methods with highest resolution and for completely new sensory applications. Light with extremely short waves will play an important role in the photolithography needed to produce the next generation of computer circuits. And last but not least it will help obtaining a new understanding of the fundamental processes acting in nature.

Controlling light with all its properties will thus play a crucial role in the key technologies of the 21st century.

Companies, universities and research institutes in and around Jena have recognized the growth potential of optical technologies and are actively involved in further developing their competences in this field. The Center "ultra optics" is playing an important role in this. Its task will be to develop new concepts for controlling light and to enter into cooperation with partners in science and industry in order to find ways to utilize these concepts. This will create a basis for a sustainable economic development in Jena's optical industry.

Objectives

The Center "ultra optics" shall contribute fundamentally to the explanation of the physical and technological possibilities of light and to the limits of controlling and steering its properties. These contributions will be used to demonstrate future optical systems and their comprehensive practicality. Now we have the prerequisites to build basic elements of an optical system technology. In analogy to electronics in the mid 1960s, these basic elements will make it possible to cover the whole range from discreet components to fully integrated functional units.

Core Topics

The Center "ultra optics" carries on the following projects:

Micro and Nano Optics
Design and production of artificial, naturally not occuring materials with tailored optical properties such as photonic crystals or crystals with controllable anisotropy. Those novel devices control the propagation of light on extremely short length scales independently of the intrinsic, natural material properties.

Laser Physics/Quantum Electronics
Light modifies materials in order to control the spatiotemporal localization of light fields through effects of self-organization which are controlled through variation of the light field. For these processes it is essential that light in interaction with matter can modify its optical environment and create its own condition under which it exists.

Partners

The interdisciplinary Center is part of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU). Scientific basis of the Center are two FSU Institutes - the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) and the Institute for Optics and Quantum Electronics (IOQ) - and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (FhG-IOF).

Contact

Prof. Dr. Andreas Tünnermann
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Faculty for Physics and Astronomy
Max-Wien-Platz 1
D-07743 Jena
Tel.: +49 36 41 65 76 40 / +49 36 41 80 72 01
E-Mail: tuennermann@iap.uni-jena.de
http://www.ultra-optics.de

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