Status & Perspectives in Science & Education

ABBE CENTER OF PHOTONICS Status & Perspectives in Science & Education

ABBE CENTER OF PHOTONICS Status & Perspectives in Science & Education OUR PARTNERS The Abbe Center of Photonics is an interfaculty center of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena which sustains a dense network with local research institutions. Strategic funding of the Abbe Center of Photonics is provided by governmental and industrial partners. Fifth edition Editorial deadline: 15.01.2024

5 4 Forewords Forewords FOREWORDS Photonics brings light into the world – literally and metaphorically. Photonics research plays an important role in the industrial development of solar energy, quantum computing, medical technologies and even space exploration – just to name a few. Without optical technologies, we would not have the means to meet, work, and connect virtually, this latter point becoming especially essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clearly, photonics has become the foundation of our modern digital society. It is a key technology today and in the future. Jena, known as Germany’s City of Light, has held an appreciation for the light sciences and technologies for a long time. The city’s high level of recognition for the subject of light is deeply embedded in the minds and lifes of its inhabitants – probably more so than in anywhere else in the world. The Friedrich Schiller University Jena maintains its commitment to light by choosing the triad LIGHT-LIFE-LIBERTY as its motto. Indeed, as part of this triad, the profile line LIGHT reflects our involvement in light and photonics research and training. Furthermore, the University holds close ties to regional industries, benefiting from their support and cooperation at many levels. Throughout our University‘s long history, the tradition of light and photonic studies owes its importance to three individuals in particular: Carl Zeiss, Otto Schott and Ernst Abbe. Ernst Abbe has always been Jena‘s most notable physicist. By establishing the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, he guaranteed the continued existence of our University for many decades to come. From the late 19th century onwards, optics and photonics did not only attain academic recognition, but also great industrial significance. Giving credit where credit is due, Ernst Abbe was thus chosen in 2010 to be the namesake of our Abbe Center of Photonics (ACP) - the key institution of the University’s profile line LIGHT. In recent years, the profile line has been strengthened significantly, with our University very successfully acquiring largescale, collaborative research projects: the Cluster of Excellence „Balance of the Microverse“, the two Collaborative Research Centers NOA and CataLight, and the Max Planck School of Photonics. ACP scientists have contributed considerably to the success of these projects and still do. Furthermore, the university holds close ties to non-university research centers and regional industries, benefiting from their support and cooperation at many levels. The University of Jena and the ACP are located in Thuringia, Germany’s dynamically developing region of technological innovation. This region is also blessed with a rich cultural heritage and attractive natural surroundings. I cordially invite you to immerse in this booklet’s pages and discover what light means to the city of Jena, its university and its scientific community. If this message sparks your interest and curiosity, it would be our pleasure to welcome you personally in Jena, the City of Light. Prof. Dr Walter Rosenthal, January 2021 President of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena’s deep historical roots in the fields of optics and photonics represent a great challenge, but also a strong stimulus to continue this century-long tradition with equal success in the future. In the past, the combination of efforts from various scientific branches was the main force that nurtured many scientific breakthroughs. Today more than ever, this conviction is shared by scientific and economic communities around the globe. This is undoubtedly true for the field of photonics, a key enabling technology also driving social change on a global scale. Since 2000, nine Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry have been awarded to photonics scientists. In 2023, the most recent award was given to our dear friends and colleagues L’Huillier, Agostini and Krausz for their breakthrough work in the field of attosecond physics and ultrashort light pulses. This is one of the fields in which Jena also holds world-class expertise. The Abbe Center of Photonics (ACP), as part of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, clearly pursues one leitmotif of our Center’s namesake, Ernst Abbe: ground-breaking science is only possible if individuals work cooperatively to achieve a higher goal. At ACP, theoreticians and experimentalists, among them physicists, chemists, material scientists, biologists and physicians, have made remarkable headway in establishing the Center as the primary driver of the university’s profile line LIGHT within photonics and photonics-related technologies. Since the center’s founding in 2010, ACP’s members have experienced a remarkable synergetic effect by creating joint novel ideas. We have developed a strategic roadmap regarding our joint research and educational missions. Now in 2024 we have set many of these visions into reality! Our ambitions and goals are seen by viewing Jena’s academic curriculum and by society’s present and future focus in the fields of optics, photonics and quantum technologies. Our Center’s continued pursuit for academic excellence will be the stimulus for a sustaining commitment common to all ACP scientists in the years to come. It has and will continue its promise of becoming Jena’s home of multidisciplinary research and innovation. We are proud that our Center’s excellence is not limited solely to research. It is our belief that the highest standards of academic opportunities and qualification can be achieved only through a unified approach of research and education. Our teaching of young scientists has boosted the integration of the Abbe School of Photonics with the nationally pioneering Max Planck School of Photonics. Together, we have become joined into the ivy league of photonics education worldwide. We receive annually over a thousand applications globally for our Master’s degree and doctoral programs. The resulting internationalization of ASP’s teaching personnel and staff has contributed to its recognition as one of our university’s flagship faculties. We also managed to face and to encounter many difficulties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. With fresh ideas in digitalization and modernized education tools, we are well prepared to effectively continue our educational mission. With this current 2024 edition of our booklet, we wish to provide you with a fresh summary of our Center’s collaborative efforts undertaken during the last several years. The booklet has been updated thanks to ACP’s many recent developments particularly related to breakthrough results in research as well as our newly appointed faculty. Unlike an annual report, our aim is to attain a balance between the manifestation of and reflection on our very dynamic progress. We truly hope that this booklet will provide you with a clear overview of our pursuits and future plans. Feel warmly welcome to immerse yourself in the description of our currentlyoffered courses and seminars. All of these exude our united opinion that Jena is indeed one of the best places in the world to study and do research in optics, photonics and now also quantum technologies. In the spirit of our namesake, Ernst Abbe, we would be happy to welcome you soon. ACP Board Of Directors, January 2024 Prof. Stefanie Gräfe Prof. Thomas Pertsch Prof. Jürgen Popp Prof. Christian Spielmann Prof. Andreas Tünnermann

7 6 Table of Contents Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial �� 4 DIRECTOR‘S REPORT 8 Structure ��12 Funding �� 16 Local partners ��18 Advisory Board ��20 Our team ��21 EDUCATION – ABBE SCHOOL OF PHOTONICS 22 Building Careers in Photonics ��24 Master‘s Degree Program ��26 Doctoral Program ��29 Junior Scientist Program ��32 Guest Professorship Program ��34 KEY RESEARCH AREA ULTRA OPTICS 36 KEY RESEARCH AREA STRONG FIELD PHYSICS 42 KEY RESEARCH AREA BIOPHOTONICS 48 PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST PROFILES 54 Michael Bauer ��56 Christoph Biskup ��58 Thomas Bocklitz ��60 Michael Börsch ��62 Axel Brakhage ��64 Delia Brauer ��66 Mario Chemnitz ��68 Maria Chernysheva ��70 Volker Deckert ��72 Benjamin Dietzek-Ivanšić ��74 Christian Eggeling ��76 Falk Eilenberger ��78 Christian Franke ��80 Thorsten Fritz ��82 Stephan Fritzsche ��84 Wolfgang Fritzsche ��86 Martin Gärttner ��88 Holger Gies ��90 Stefanie Gräfe ��92 DIRECTOR‘S REPORT 8 KEY RESEARCH AREA ULTRA OPTICS 36 KEY RESEARCH AREA BIOPHOTONICS 48 EDUCATION - ABBE SCHOOL OF PHOTONICS 22 KEY RESEARCH AREA STRONG FIELD PHYSICS 42 PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST PROFILES 54 Stefan H. Heinemann ��94 Rainer Heintzmann ��96 Jer-Shing Huang ��98 Malte C. Kaluza ��100 Daniil Kartashov ��102 Erika Kothe ��104 Jens Limpert ��106 Stefan Lorkowski ��108 Timo Mappes ��110 Ute Neugebauer ��112 Stefan Nolte ��114 Gerhard G. Paulus ��116 Thomas Pertsch ��118 Ulf Peschel ��120 Adrian N. Pfeiffer ��122 Jürgen Popp ��124 Ralf Röhlsberger ��126 Carsten Ronning ��128 Jan Rothhardt ��130 Sina Saravi ��132 Felix Schacher ��134 Heidemarie Schmidt ��136 Markus A. Schmidt ��138 Michael Schmitt ��140 Ulrich S. Schubert ��142 Frank Setzpfandt ��144 Giancarlo Soavi ��146 Christian Spielmann ��148 Isabelle Staude ��150 Fabian Steinlechner ��152 Thomas Stöhlker ��154 Adriana Szeghalmi ��156 Andreas Tünnermann ��158 Andrey Turchanin ��160 Lothar Wondraczek ��162 Matthew Zepf ��164 IMPRINT 166

8 Director‘s Report Table of Contents DIRECTOR‘S REPORT

THE ABBE CENTER OF PHOTONICS IS THE ACADEMIC CENTER FOR OPTICS AND PHOTONICS AT THE FRIEDRICH SCHILLER UNIVERSITY JENA. Our main mission is to promote interdisciplinary research and education, jointly performed by scientists from different subject areas, spanning physics, material sciences, chemistry, biology and medicine. We are following the vision of positioning ACP and Jena as one of the leading European centers for research and education in optics, photonics and quantum sciences, as well as in the development and transfer of optical and quantum technologies.

13 12 Director‘s Report Structure Structure Director‘s Report STRUCTURE The Abbe Center of Photonics (ACP) is the host of major research and educational activities in optics and photonics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. As a cornerstone of the University‘s scientific profile, this interfaculty center forms the core of the University‘s profile line LIGHT and incorporates major scientific contributions from Jena‘s nonuniversity optical research institutes. Based on more than a century of optics and photonics tradition in Jena, ACP was founded in 2010 by the optical scientists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena to further shape the University‘s scientific profile. ACP‘s founding was a milestone in the University‘s long term institutional strategy to establish the priority research area Optics, Photonics and Photonic Technologies already in 2005. Besides its academic mission, ACP reflects the strategy of the University by forming a close partnership with Jena‘s prosperous optics and photonics industry. This fact was also recognized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) when it established the Center for Innovation Competence ZIK »ultra optics« that same year, remaining a central pillar of ACP until today. ACP’s legal status as an interfaculty center of the University is sealed by an official statute. The Center is directed by an elected board of four to five scientific directors, one of them being its executive director. A CROSS-FERTILIZING CENTER FOR OPTICAL SCIENCES In joint research projects, ACP scientists cover both fundamental and applied topics. One of ACP’s main goals is to produce synergetic effects between University institutes, the associated non-university research institutes and its industrial partners to enable a scientific and economical added-value. The Center’s funding is mainly attracted in competitive thirdparty funding programs. While encompassing a broad variety of research fields, the ACP concentrates on expertise development in its three strategic domains: ULTRA OPTICS, STRONG FIELD PHYSICS, and BIOPHOTONICS. Besides ACP‘s research efforts, the education of young research scientists, represented by the integrated Abbe School of Photonics (ASP), exhibits its fourth profile cornerstone. ACP membership is open to all members of the Friedrich Schiller University working in the field of optics and photonics and also to externals who are active in ACP’s research fields. ACP membership applications are regularly considered and approved by the board of directors. In January 2024, ACP is comprised of 57 high-profile members who, due to the Center’s interfaculty character, are affiliated with different departments of the University: • 32 members from the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, • 15 members from the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, • 4 members from the Faculty of Biological Sciences, • 3 members from the Faculty of Medicine. There are three further ACP members which are not directly affiliated with either of the University’s departments. Moreover, further cross-affiliations of ACP’s members with Jena’s associated research institutions promote sustainable institutional bonds between the ACP and these institutions. This particularly holds true for the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, the Helmholtz Institute Jena and the Deutsches Optisches Museum (D.O.M.). ACP is run by a lean but effective management structure. The board of directors is elected by the members every three years. The ACP advisory board, currently formed by seven high-profile personalities from academia, industry and politics, supports the directors in questions of strategic importance. Administratively, the Center is run by a chief executive officer and a specialized team particularly dedicated to the coordination of the Master‘s degree, doctoral and guest programs s well as other centralized initiatives concerning e.g. digitalization, research infrastructures, science communication and internationalization. AN ATTRACTIVE PERSPECTIVE FOR PHOTONICS EXPERTNESS IN ACADEMIA Hand in hand with the University, ACP offers applicants showing excellent academic achievements the maximum opportunities for an academic career in optics and photonics in Jena. In order to provide this scientific and structural development with a broad foundation, ACP members have managed to actively steer strategic appointments, thereby serving to strengthen the Center’s core identity and the University’s profile line LIGHT. Since 2012, a considerable number of strategic professorship appointments have been achieved: Blahnik (Optical System Design), DietzekIvanšić (Molecular Photonics), Deckert (Nanospectroscopy), Eggeling (High-Resolution Microscopy), Fritzsche (Relativistic Quantum Dynamics), Gärttner (Quantum Information Theory), Gräfe (Theoretical Chemistry), Limpert (Novel SolidState Laser Concepts), Mappes (Science Communication), H. Schmidt (Quantum Systems), M. Schmidt (Fiber Sensors), Staude (Photonic Nanomaterials), Peschel (Solid State Optics), Röhlsberger (X-ray Physics), Stöhlker (Atomic Physics in Extreme Coloumb & Laser Fields), Turchanin (Applied Physical Chemistry), and Wondraczek (Glass Chemistry). The bust of Ernst Abbe, the first to formulate the diffraction limit for a microscope and the famous eponym of the ACP, is hosted inside a historical monument in Jena. Organization chart of the Abbe Center of Photonics.

15 14 Director‘s Report Structure Structure Director‘s Report information regarding financial aid earmarked for the promotion of women in academic careers is distributed at all levels. Clearly, the support of young female scientists is a crosssectional task for both ACP and the University. It creates and secures conditions of equal opportunity for all its members, independent of gender and background. PUBLICATIONS AND DISTINGUISHMENTS Publications are the main channels of scientific output, but they also serve to generate public awareness and are thus a primary performance indicator, both for the Center’s scientific excellence and its visibility. Since ACP was officially founded in late 2010, a regular output of about 400 peer-reviewed publications p.a. has been measured, and a significant rise of high-impact papers was achieved. This rise is mainly attributed to two factors: First, a number of large-scale projects in the optical sciences and adjacent fields led by the ACP principal scientists were put into operation a few years ago. Second, the institutionalization of the profile line LIGHT by the ACP, its key player, has attracted more and more international researchers of the Friedrich Schiller University to the optical sciences. These additional scientists have fused their complementary expertise into combined research efforts in a synergetic way - this fact is also reflected by the recent rise in publication numbers. By November 2023, more than 340 high-impact publications, marked as ACP research highlights, have been published by ACP principal scientists, and at least 124 of them were issued by the Nature Publishing Group (Nature, Nature Photonics, Nature Materials, etc.). Among the particularly outstanding achievements are the prices and distinguishments, which the Center’s members have been awarded in recent years. Just to name a few, the Federal German President‘s Award for Innovation in Science and Technology was awarded to a team around Stefan Nolte, for their contribution in transferring fundamental research of ultrafast laser processes into an industrial manufacturing tool. The prestigious ERC Grants (Starting, Consolidator and Advanced) were awarded to ACP principial scientists Benjamin Dietzek-Ivanšić, Christian Eggeling, Stefanie Gräfe, Jens Limpert (three times), Andreas Tünnermann, Andrey Turchanin, Ullrich Schubert, Thomas Stöhlker and Lothar Wondraczek. Only for the second time in its longstanding history since 1957, the Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award was given to a non-American individual, Jürgen Popp for his outstanding contributions to the field of applied spectroscopy. This list may be well continued, and ACP scientists will strive to do so. EQUAL GENDER OPPORTUNITIES AND FAMILY-FRIENDLINESS ACP strongly and actively pursues gender mainstreaming and family-friendly working conditions. In addition to ACP internal initiatives, a variety of measures at the federal state, local state and municipal level are already in place to promote equal gender opportunities. While gender equality is less an issue in the departments of biology and medicine, there is still – despite all efforts – a severe problem in the current staffing of physics and chemistry departments which reflects the acute shortage of women in these disciplines in Germany in general, and optics and photonics in particular. Currently, eight out of 57 ACP principal scientists are female, namely Delia Brauer, Maria Chernysheva, Stefanie Gräfe, Erika Kothe, Ute Neugebauer, Heidemarie Schmidt, Isabelle Staude and Adriana Szeghalmi. As part of our institutional strategy, women are strongly encouraged and supported in many respects to achieve group leaderships, junior and full professorships. Moreover, we have demonstrated that the long-term issue can be systematically addressed by supporting women at the earlier stages of their academic careers, incorporating this principle in all aspects of ACP’s qualification strategy. In fact, first successes of these efforts can be seen by quantitative indicators at the early-stage academic levels, demonstrating that the coordinated programs at ACP and ASP exhibit a noticeable percentage of women. In November 2023, 31% of all enrolled or graduated students in the ASP Master’s degree program were women, and the percentage of women enrolled in the ASP doctoral program is 30%, with a solid trend of increase. In particular, the competitive support instruments which aim to maximally link doctoral researcher and postdoctoral career stages are considered as optimally designed for promoting gender equality and for balancing structural disadvantages for female candidates. For two prominent cases, our gender equality measures on the junior level have proven to be fruitful. In 2015, former ACP member Rachel Grange was appointed as a professor at ETH Zurich. Following this model, the previous ACP junior research group leader Isabelle Staude was appointed as a full professor at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 2020. While we will continue to increase our efforts on gender equality, we hope that our already demonstrated success cases will act as a seed for further appointments of female professors in the future. To further promote equal opportunity and family-friendly conditions, ACP has appointed its director Stefanie Gräfe as contact person for gender issues. She provides advice and support for equal opportunity or familyrelated topics within ACP and ASP. On the administrative level, Optics and photonics publications by ACP principal scientists according to ISI Web of Science, since 2011. To reflect the dynamics in recent years and to allow for a fair comparison, the numbers take into account the peer-review publications in optics, photonics and related fields for all ACP members since the start of their affiliation with the Friedrich Schiller University. ACP’s new infrastructure, a research and teaching building with more than 2,600 m2 of laboratory and office spaces for research and teaching was taken into operation in 2016. Since then, the building, its students and scientists have jointly evoked a great impact on the scientific excellence in the whole Jena region, in many respects. The construction has been funded by the State of Thuringia and the German federal government with 26 million Euro.

17 16 Director‘s Report Funding Funding Director‘s Report FUNDING The Abbe Center of Photonics (ACP) acquires multiple sources of funding to establish and maintain its research, education and infrastructure program. The larger share of financial aid is for indirect support, attracted by ACP’s principal scientists through many different competitive third-party funding schemes. This support comes mainly from substantial large-scale and collaborative research projects. To obtain maximum benefit from the synergetic effects which ACP provides, its members focus their common acquisition efforts on strategic funding, i.e. on largescale, interdisciplinary and sustainable collaborative research projects. The following list, sorted by funding sources, is a selection of currently active strategic research projects which have been acquired by ACP‘s principal scientists through competitive funding programs: Annual budgets of third-party funding in optics and photonics research and educational projects led by ACP principal scientists from years 2010 to 2022, sorted by funding sources. The numbers for 2023 were not yet available at the editorial deadline of this booklet. In addition to individual grants and fellowships, ACP scientists are also proud to attract an exceptionally high amount of third-party funding for projects aiming to support professional careers within the educational program. Substantial financial support for infrastructure and administration to benefit the Abbe School of Photonics is provided by federal programs (Max Planck School of Photonics), the German Academic Exchange Service (Graduate School Scholarship Programs) and from the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (Jena Alliance Life in Focus). In addition, ACP gratefully receives financial support for selected doctoral research projects from different types of scholarships from the European Union and the European Research Council (ERC), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Thuringian Ministry for Economy, Science, and Digital Society (TMWWDG), the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation, the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, as well as from our more than 20 industrial partners, among them ASML, LEICA, JENOPTIK, OSRAM, PHILIPS, TRUMPF, and ZEISS. The following chart lists the annual budgets which ACP scientists have spent on their optics and photonics projects from 2010 to 2022. Since ACP‘s foundation, an already considerably high level of funding has been continuously increased. Currently, the annual competitive third-party budget has achieved a considerably high and constant level of about EUR 30 million raised by ACP principal scientists. Another solid tendency lies in the fact of a growing amount of funding was attracted from the German Research Foundation (DFG). In sum, and over the last 10 years, ACP’s annual budgets have constituted roughly 25 to 35% of the overall sum of third-party funding granted to all scientists of the entire Friedrich Schiller University Jena. These numbers are proof of the vital and sustainable impact of optics, photonics and quantum technology research and education performed by ACP – a reflection of the University’s impressive research profile as well as on the strong economic and infrastructural backbone of Jena. THE GERMAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION • Excellence Cluster EXC 2051 Balance of the Microverse - strong support to our microbiology partners • Collaborative Research Center SFB 1375 NOA - Nonlinear Optics down to Atomic scales • Collaborative Research Center SFB 1278 Polytarget • Collaborative Research Center SFB TRR 234 Catalight together with the University of Ulm • International Research Training Group IRTG 2675 METAACTIVE together with the Australian National University THE EUROPEAN UNION • Attosecond Chemistry - COST Action (CA18222) • BioQantSense - Twinning for Excellence with the Serbian National Institute of Physics Belgrade (EU Twinning 101079355) • EMIMEP - European Master for Industry in Microwave Electronics and Photonics (MSCA-EMJMD) • FastGhost - Fast quantum ghost microscopy in the mid-IR (FET-OPEN 899580) • LISA - Laser Ionization and Spectroscopy of Actinide elements (MSCA-ITN 861198) • METAFAST - Metasurfaces for Ultrafast Light Structuring (FET-OPEN 899673) • SURQUID - Super-resolving Quantum Imaging and Detection (FET-OPEN 899824) STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING • InfectoGnostics - Federal Research Campus, funded in public-private partnership by the BMBF, the Free State of Thuringia, and more than 20 companies • InQuoSens - Thuringian Innovation Center for Quantum Optics and Sensor Technology in collaboration with the Technical University Ilmenau, funded by the Free State of Thuringia • Leibniz Center for Photonics in Infection Research, selected and funded by the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap • Jena Alliance Life in Focus -a project of the Carl-ZeissStiftung, a multidisciplinary education initiative • Max Planck School of Photonics - national education excellence initiative, funded by the BMBF • QOMPLEX - joint project on Complexity Scaling of Quantum Photonic Systems, funded by the BMBF • QP.TECH.EDU and Quantum Mini Labs, both joint programmes within the Quantum Futur Education Initiative funded by the BMBF • UKPinho - SME-driven alliance on ultrashort laser pulse technology research • Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung Center for Quantum Photonics, together with the Universities of Stuttgart and Ulm

19 18 Director‘s Report local partners local partners Director‘s Report LOCAL PARTNERS ACP strongly supports the transfer of fundamental research results to applications by a dedicated partner network. To promote strategic partnerships, ACP sustains a multitude of theme-, project- and person-oriented collaboration forms in particular with three local non-university photonics institutes, as well as with the emerging Deutsches Optisches Museum, all of them located in Jena. These prime strategic partnerships are showing a strong societal impact, not only in the Jena region. This strategy has manifested in a dynamic and ever growing exchange of people, ideas, research results, finally leading to new intellectual property, optical system prototypes or start-ups – and has evolved as one of the key distinguishing features of Jena as an internationally unique photonics hub and ecosystem. Particularly, the higher education of our Abbe School of Photonics provides fertile grounds when its graduates are continuing their professional careers at ACP‘s premium partners, each of them providing an unmistakable scientific and societal profile. FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED OPTICS AND PRECISION ENGINEERING JENA Jena‘s Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF) develops solutions for all aspects of light generation, light guidance and light measurement. Current focuses of its research activities include freeform technologies, micro- and nanotechnologies, fiber laser systems, quantum optics as well as optical technologies for safe human-machine interaction. The institute focusses on on the business fields of Sensors & Metrology, Opto-mechanical Systems, and Light Sources & Lasers. It is thereby able to offer the entire process chain or individual process steps for each of these areas – from the design to the production of components as well as the assembly to opto-mechanical or optoelectronic systems and holistic characterization. Fraunhofer IOF can accompany customers from their initial request to the market launch. All research and development processes are carried out in line with market trends. The institute also takes care of translating results and developments into the processes of partners and customers in the form of personnel qualification or technology transfer. In addition to contract research, the institute also offers individual services according to its developed technologies. These services include, for example, the functional coating of surfaces, material and component testing, ultra-precision machining of components, high-speed 3D measurements or the construction of tailormade special machines. With its “Digital Innovation Hub Photonics”(DIHP), Fraunhofer IOF combines its technical expertise with competence in the field of innovation management and professional training at the highest level, making it one of the leading institutions in the national and international photonics industry. LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE OF PHOTONIC TECHNOLOGY JENA How can we support physicians in diagnosing cancer faster, more gently and more accurately? How can we help them to treat patients with life-threatening infections and jointly combat the danger of growing resistance to antibiotics? Which drug residues pollute our water and what is in our food? Scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) use light to find solutions to questions and urgent problems in the fields of health, environment, medicine and safety. They research photonic technologies for faster and more precise medical diagnostics, for safe medicines, for a new quality of food and water analysis and for innovative safety technology. They work on the vision to make our lives safer and healthier. Under the motto “Photonics for Life”, one focus of research is on optical health technologies. To this end, three program areas are interlinked: Biophotonics, Fiber Optics and Photonic Detection. In 14 research departments and two junior research groups, scientists use four key technologies: Fiber technology, planar micro- and nanotechnology, systems technology and statistical evaluation processes (chemometrics, machine learning and artificial intelligence). Together with partners from research and industry, Leibniz IPHT pushes translation. According with the maxim “From Ideas to Instruments”, the institute covers the entire innovation chain – from basic technological research to the implementation of customized, application-ready solutions. The foundation for this is laid by an outstanding technological infrastructure. A technology center allows the production of highly precise and complex optical fibers. They are used as light sources, as fiber optic sensors and in probes and endoscopes. A clean room offers optimal conditions for research into highly sensitive detector and sensor concepts using micro- and nanotechnologies, for example, as well as for providing microfluidic components for lab-on-a-chip systems for medical and life science applications. HELMHOLTZ INSTITUTE JENA The Helmholtz Institute Jena (HI Jena) is an outstation of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, located on the campus of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Additional partners within the Helmholtz Association are the research centers Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg and the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). The institute’s research is focused on the borderline between conventional accelerator technolgy and the rapidly developing field of laser-driven particle and photon sources. HI Jena provides important contributions to current and future large-scale research facilities, such as the FAIR project at the Helmholtzzentrum GSI, and the FEL photon sources FLASH and XFEL at DESY. Moreover, it effectively strengthens Jena’s research profile by facilitating new areas of research and significantly stimulating cooperation between the participating Helmholtz Centers and ACP principal scientists. DEUTSCHES OPTISCHES MUSEUM JENA In a public-private-partnership the foundation“Deutsches Optisches Museum (D.O.M.)” is entirely redesigning all parts of the former museum of optics in Jena, transforming it into a research facility. On a publicly accessible area of about 2,500 m² in the city center of Jena, there will open a new and highly interactive permanent exhibition on optics and photonics in 2026. The narrative of D.O.M.’s exhibition is based on the holistic combination of three elements: (1) live optical experiments, allowing the visitors to grasp the basic optical and photonic effects by personal interaction. (2) presenting historic optical devices and instruments that were designed based on those effects, while putting the equipment in the context of its application. And eventually (3) the showcase of optics research – providing a unified platform for young researchers from ACP, MPSP, and ASP to have a very visible public outreach of their latest publications. All this is based on D.O.M.’s outstanding collection of historic optical equipment, the world’s largest archive of optical glasses, numerous antique and still working microscopes with thousands of historic objectives, many thousands of historical spectacle lenses since the middle ages, and the largest collection of grey literature on optical instruments. Research at D.O.M. is focused on the understanding of the application of optics. While revisiting historic experiments by combining antique optics with latest (imaging) technology, limitations of the past are revealed, providing impulses for new and innovative solutions to today’s tasks. In this context, D.O.M. always puts emphasis on the connection with the present. The work therefore considers both, the contribution to improving our standard of living and the gain in knowledge via the physical laws of optics.

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