Press Releases

30 years ago, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF was founded in Jena. The institute celebrated three decades of optics and photonics research with an anniversary celebration on July 7. Among the guests were representatives of state and federal politics as well as the Fraunhofer Executive Board. They also celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the institute's newest research building. In the future, especially quantum research will be advanced here.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has funded the "Quantum Photonics Labs" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF with 8.5 million euros since 2019. The project aimed to develop instruments for controlling quantum systems and thus developing key components for the challenges of the second quantum revolution. Now the project results are available.

The World of Quantum is celebrating its premiere this year at the world's leading trade fair for photonics. The LASER trade fair is thus taking the rapidly growing market for quantum technologies into account. From April 26 to 29, several Fraunhofer institutes will be presenting their latest developments in this field and their respective areas of application in Hall A4, Booth 180.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding a consortium led by the Stuttgart-based quantum start-up Q.ANT with 45 million euros. The consortium partners are contributing a further eight million euros. The funding will be used to build a demonstration and test facility for photonic quantum computer chips and other quantum computing components. The consortium also includes the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF. Both are taking on development tasks worth 12.6 million euros in the project.

Quantum mechanically entangled light particles break down the boundaries of conventional optics and allow a glimpse into previously invisible wavelength ranges, thus bringing about new possibilities for imaging techniques, microscopy and spectroscopy. Unearthing these possibilities and creating technological solutions was the goal of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project QUILT.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, together with their partner, have been awarded the Lothar Späth Award 2021 for the development of metal-optical precision instruments. The high-performance telescope GALA is to be used in the ESA JUICE mission planned for 2023 to explore Jupiter's moon Ganymede. The award ceremony took place on November 19 in Stuttgart, Germany.

One Nobel Prize winner, two funding awards, 45 program points, almost 50 speakers and nearly 600 participants from all over the world: These were this year's "Photonics Days Jena". The career and networking event for students and doctoral candidates in the field of optics and photonics, organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and the Max Planck School of Photonics, met a high international interest in its third year with a hybrid format.