Press Releases

At the Startup Germany Summit 2024 in Berlin today, the innovation and digital location Jena was named the new de:hub of the Digital Hub Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

With its new, digital webinar series Photonics4Future, Fraunhofer IOF offers exclusive insights into pioneering research and technologies in the field of optics and photonics. Once a month, researchers from the institute will present their solutions for current and future challenges in industry and society live. The series starts on September 12, 2024 at 2 p.m.. Participation is free of charge and possible online without pre-registration.

Secure gas control systems, power lines or communication networks are essential and therefore count as critical infrastructure. In view of the threat of cyberattacks, a new research project led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena aims to protect these networks from hacker attacks using modern quantum technology. The MANTIS project is specifically researching the advantages of so-called MDI-QKD over conventional QKD methods. The five-million-euro project was now officially launched with a kick-off event.

For their research into customized 2D materials, a team of four scientists from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF have been awarded the “Thüringer Forschungspreis” (Thuringian Research Prize). The award for scientific excellence in the category “Applied Research” was presented today at a ceremony at the Technical University Ilmenau and is endowed with 25,000 euros.

Andreas Tünnermann, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF and the Institute for Applied Physics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, has been awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his scientific and social commitment.

In recent years, micro-optical projectors have become well established for automotive applications. These projectors enable cars to communicate with their surroundings. Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF have now developed a dynamic indicator light that guarantees maximum visibility in a compact form, even under daylight conditions. The blinker will be presented for the first time at OPTATEC 2024 in Frankfurt (Main) from May 14 to 16.

With the handheld scanner goSCOUT3D, Fraunhofer IOF researchers have developed a mobile sensor that enables high-resolution 3D measurements of complex objects. To further automate this process, researchers have now connected the scanner to a robot dog of the Boston Dynamics brand. Doing so is supposed to make measurements, e.g., in quality assurance, even more efficient as well as unburden employees in future. The unit consisting of sensor head and robot will now be presented for the first time at the CONTROL trade fair in Stuttgart from April 23-26.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF have developed a very compact spectrometer module. It maps spectra from 39 optical fibers onto one camera sensor in a small space. This is made possible by a special micro-optical system. The technology, which has potential for applications in quality assurance and analytics, will be presented at analytica trade fair in Munich from April 9 to 12.

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.