Press Releases

Researchers from Jena, Würzburg and Potsdam have successfully developed a design for the smallest system of its kind so far to take highly secure quantum communication to space: Led by Fraunhofer IOF, the project CubEniK developed an ultracompact payload for a satellite the size of a shoe box, a so called “CubeSat”. The goal of the mini satellite is to transmit a secure quantum key over a distance of 300 kilometers between two ground stations in Jena and Munich.

For the first time, a team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and the University of New Mexico have succeeded in cooling silica glass by 67 kelvins through optical laser cooling. The researchers from Jena and Albuquerque have now published the results in the journal Optics Express.

German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena today as part of the event series "Werkstatt des Wandels" (Workshop of Change). He thereby recognized the institute as a place of successful transformation that contributes to new opportunities for society, the economy and industry.

How can computers become even more powerful with the help of light while consuming less energy? How can we produce tiny micro-optics faster and more cost-effectively in the future? And how can findings from nano-optics be applied to the industrial use of quantum sensors? The prize winners of this year's "Applied Photonics Award" are addressing these and other questions about the future. The Young Researcher Award was presented to the five award winners of 2023 on October 12 as part of the "Photonics Days Jena".

This week, the german federal government has approved the new space strategy. Andreas Tünnermann, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and Chair of Applied Physics at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, welcomes the new strategy as an "important step for national space research". He expects that especially the innovation ecosystem at the photonics location Jena "will make relevant contributions to the implementation of the new space strategy".

The Free State of Thuringia wants to become an important hub for the German quantum network. With various projects, the state, the federal government and the European Union are driving forward the expansion of a network for quantum communication in Germany. Existing test links for researching quantum-secured fiber links between Erfurt and Jena are now to be extended by new sections in the direction of Nordhausen and, in perspective, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. A visit by Thuringia's Science Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee to the Fraunhofer Center in Erfurt on August 31, 2023 marked the start of further route expansion, which is being carried out as part of the new Q-net-Q research project.

Researchers from Jena, Berlin, Erlangen-Nuremberg and Wessling have successfully distributed quantum keys between two points using a combination of free-space and fiber links under everyday conditions. On a heterogeneous test bed in Jena, they achieved key rates in the kilobit range per second in daylight. The experiment was implemented as part of the QuNET initiative, a pilot project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to develop highly secure communication systems based on quantum technologies.

The European Union is providing 4.3 million euros in funding for a new project to research high-security quantum communication via satellites. In the QUDICE project, an international team of researchers, including members of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, aims to develop components for space-based distribution of quantum keys. The new hardware is expected to become one day the basis of a European satellite network. At Fraunhofer IOF, a miniaturized source for generating entangled light particles in the telecommunications wavelength range will be built specifically for this purpose. The project has recently started its three-year term.

They fly high above our heads and are indispensable for our globally networked world: satellites. For a long time, they used radio waves to exchange data with each other and with ground stations. But in a highly networked world with a rapidly growing volume of data, these have long been insufficient to cope with the volume of data. The solution: light. Light enables data to be transmitted much faster - and, especially with entangled light particles known as quanta, much more securely. At SPIE Photonics West from January 31 to February 2, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF will be presenting several innovations for laser- and quantum-based communication together with its project partners from quantum communication and space research.

Optics that do not fog up and almost do not reflect - this will be possible in the future due to a new optical coating system developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF. The technology is expected to help improve the performance of lidar systems and cameras in, for example, autonomous driving cars. The research team has now presented the new process in a paper published in the journal "Applied Optics".