KLÖ GGTTberlinJJ NANONANOPHOTONICSPHOTONICS No. 52 ·VOLUME 24 ·MARCH 2010 · TU BERLIN » Contents 2 The Photon Area Optical components are the motor of economic development in the 21st century 6 Radiant research prospects The MONA project: guidelines for future research support 8 “We need somebody like Steve Jobs” Interview with Tom Pearsall, the Managing Director of the governing body of the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) in Paris 10 A beacon for Nanophotonics in Berlin The German Research Foundation is investing eleven million euros in the new Collaborative Research Center 12 Light as a stimulant Optical amplifiers for the 100-Gigabit Ethernet 14 Formula-one lighton the data superhighway The company VI system is developing high-speed switches with light 16 Brilliant colours for Laser TV The magic of colour really begins when lasers are brought into the picture 17 “On the way to the next generation of lasers” Interview with Dr. Wilhelm Kaenders, CEO of Toptica Photonics AG in Munich 19 “More and more manufacturers will join in” Interview with Peter Leibinger, Vice Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of the Laser Division of TRUMPF GmbH 20 Heavy equipment is being scrapped Compact laser projectors enable unprecedented visual effects 22 “Getting ready for the global markets of the future” Interview with Dr. Uwe Strauß, Head of the Laser Development Department at Osram Opto Semiconductors in Regensburg 24 Fighting viruses with light New light-emitting diodes for UV radiation purify water 26 New niches for lasers The company Lumics is developing lasers for industrial applications 28 High precision Tool Photonic Band Crystals will mean a quantum leap in laser welding technology 30 Torchbearers in the data tunnel One single photon can frustrate hackers or lead snoopers astray 33 “Integrated Research Training Group” Semiconductor Nanophotonics: Materials, Models, Devices 33 Imprint 34 The Collaborative Research Centre: an overview Worldwide BEACON bold APPOINTMENT POLICY he new Collaborative Research icance of the participating institutions Centre [Sonderforschungsbe- constituting the geographical centre for Treich] for “Semiconductor nano-optoelectronic research in Ger- Nanophotonics: Materials, Models, many. The institutions include the Tech- Components” with its integrated Grad- nical University (TU) Berlin which is uate College commenced work in Ber- the coordinator for the project, the lin and Magdeburg at the beginning of Humboldt University in Berlin and the 2008. Under this umbrella, over 100 sci- Otto von Guericke University in Mag- entists are now carrying out research on deburg, as well as major Berlin research novel types of photonic devices, nano- institutes such as the Ferdinand Braun materials and the relevant mathemati- Institute for High-Frequency Technol- cal models. ogy, the Fraunhofer Institute for Tele- For an initial four-year period, the communications (Heinrich Hertz Insti- German Research Foundation (Deut- tute), the Weierstrass Institute for Ap- sche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) plied Analysis and Stochastics and the has granted almost 11 million euros in Konrad Zuse Institute for Information external funding. The planned duration Technology. schools, … will ensure that the ideas of the project is twelve years, with a The light from this scientific beacon emerging from this research are made total planned funding of approximately also shines out to promote a number of accessible to the public. 35 million euros. The State of Berlin and projects carried out in co-operation I would like to express my pleasure the European Union have allocated fur- with existing and spin-off companies, about this excellent integrated scientific ther grants for the development of com- bridging the gap between science and approach being pursued, and my grati- petitive infrastructures, ensuring the commerce. I am certain that many eco- tude for the commitment and dedication establishment of Berlin as a leading re- nomically viable solutions will emerge to all who are engaged in the project. I search centre in the field of semiconduc- from this Collaborative Research Cen- would like to wish the scientists in the tor photonics both in Germany and tre. The participating institutes and re- Collaborative Research Centre and the across Europe. This comprehensive ap- search groups function as incubators integrated Graduate College much suc- proach guarantees optimum working for new ideas, new products and inno- cess and I hope that the readers of this conditions for an international beacon vative solutions which, in a unique way, brochure will experience many “flashes project based on huge scientific exper- are able to accelerate the transfer of of light“ from this beacon. tise from the surrounding region. knowledge in a field of technology The basic research being carried out which is of greatest interest for today’s at the universities and the applied re- innovation in Germany. search being done at the extrauniver- In this brochure, we present a selec- sity institutes are linked in a unique tion of the initial projects which consti- Prof. Dr. Kurt Kutzler way. The creation of the Collaborative tute this comprehensive program. Sub- President, TU Berlin Research Centre emphasises the signif- sequent publications, events, summer June 2002–March 2010 TU BERLIN FORSCHUNG AKTUELL 2010 NANOPHOTONICS 1 The PHOTON ERA Optical components make use of elementary light particles and are the motor of economic development in the 21st century. Areas previously dominated by electric current and electrons will, in future, be the domain of rapidly moving photons which will take over the tasks of data transfer, materials processing, chip manufacturing, environment control and material analysis. Nanostructured semiconductors are one of the major materials used as the basis for these optical components. By Prof. Dr. Dieter Bimberg, ML 2 TU BERLIN FORSCHUNG AKTUELL 2010 NANOPHOTONICS ll components and devices in next few years, LEDs will force electric Prize for their idea of the heterostruc- which light plays a major part bulbs out of the market, leading to a ture laser and its practical implementa- Aconstitute the domain of semi- significant saving in energy. In addi- tion. However, it is only in recent times conductor photonics. Light is generated tion, completely new applications will that innovative laser diodes and from an electric current or transformed be developed, e.g. in the field of water systems based on these have paved the into electric power. conservation. Even today, most of the way for completely new applications Light-emitting diodes, known as remote controls at home would be un- which were previously unthought-of. LEDs, require far less energy than con- thinkable, were it not for LEDs. They are increasingly replacing con- ventional electric bulbs or lamps in The laser diode is proving to be even ventional electrical and mechanical de- order to generate light in important more of a multi-talent. These devices vices. Only by means of laser diodes it areas of the spectrum, ranging from the have been known for over 40 years. In is now possible to achieve the huge data infrared to the ultraviolet, enabling the year 2000, Zhores Alferov and Her- rates in the field of information and many different applications. Within the bert Krömer were awarded the Nobel communication technology enabling TU BERLIN FORSCHUNG AKTUELL 2010 NANOPHOTONICS 3 The author of this text is the Director of the Institute for Solid-State Physics and of the Nanopho- tonics Centre at the TU Berlin, Chairman of the national Competence Centre for Nano-Optoelec- tronics and the Fed- eral Government Association of Nano- technology Compe- tence Centres in Ger- many “AGeNT-D”. He was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2004 and is elected fellow of both APS and IEEE. the present and next generation inter- Germany in November 2007 to a re- practical research into compound semi- net, connecting peacefully humans to search team consisting of scientists conductors, semiconductor nanostruc- humans. Within one second, multi- from the Osram Opto Semiconductors tures and innovative photonic compo- plexed lasers can send well over Company in Regensburg and the nents based on these – both in Ger- 1,000,000,000,000 units of information Fraunhofer Institute in Jena. These re- many and in Europe as a whole. (one terabit per second) through an ex- searchers have developed the most effi- In the field of photonics, there exists tremely thin light fibre or through air. cient LEDs worldwide for use in every- law similar to that governing electronics Their enormous spectral resolution pro- day applications. Still more important is or computer industry: The price for a tects mankind and the environment on the bestowal of Nobel prize in Decem- specific “service” is halved every 18 the basis of new analytical methods. ber 2009 to three pioneers of photonics. months. This leads to enormous cost Laser diodes can cut, weld and melt, pressure: Companies are required to in- they can be used to operate on tumours vest considerable sums of money in the located on the retina of the human eye INNOVATION ASCERTAINS further development of their products or or they can detect individual cancer EMPLOYMENT in developing new ideas. The TU Berlin cells in the bloodstream. recognised this need at an early stage. Germany is one of the nations in the At the beginning of the twentieth cen- Here, scientists, physicists, engineers forefront of the budding photonics in- tury, Osram, Siemens and AEG, the and mathematicians combine the results dustry. According to a study carried out most important pioneers in the era of of basic and applied research using the by the Federal Ministry of Education light, had already set up their head- most modern industrial production and Research, there are already over quarters in Berlin. It was here that AEG methods for semiconductor nanomateri- 140,000 people working in this field and had begun the mass production of als, to manufacture innovative compo- the cumulated annual growth rate in the electric bulbs in 1883.