Photonics Spectra: Max Planck Society This is the syndication feed for Photonics Spectra: Max Planck Society. https://www.photonics.com/Splash.aspx?Tag=Max+Planck+Society Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:59:43 GMT Wed, 18 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT 1800 Quantum-Secured Video Conference Achieved in Germany
QuNET, a project funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), demonstrated a quantum-secured video call Aug. 10. The call represents a milestone for the project, the goal of which is the application-oriented development of the physical-technical fundamentals as well as the necessary technologies for highly secure communication networks under real conditions using quantum physics.

The setup of the first quantum-based videoconference between BMBF and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) used multiple free-space and fiber quantum channels. Aside from the video conference aspect of the demonstration, the setup also needed to produce scientific data that could provide important insights for...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Quantum-Secured_Video_Conference_Achieved_in/p5/a67267 A67267 Wed, 18 Aug 2021 07:00:00 GMT
Laser Pulses Trigger Ultrafast Material Property Shift
Researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter demonstrated the ability to use light to achieve a novel type of ultrafast switch. The efforts stem from the collaborators’ pursuit of ever-increasing speed in electronics and computing technologies. Transistors that turn electrical currents on and off quickly are pillars of those technologies.

The researchers’ focus was to induce changes in a material’s properties, such as making magnetic materials nonmagnetic or changing the electric conductivity of a crystal. Electrical properties of a material relate strongly to the arrangement of the electrons within the crystal. As such,...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Laser_Pulses_Trigger_Ultrafast_Material_Property/p5/a66915 A66915 Mon, 26 Apr 2021 07:00:00 GMT
Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Provides 1-nm Resolution
Tip-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (TERRS) has been demonstrated by a research team at Fritz-Haber Institute. The results suggest that TERRS could offer a new approach for the atomic-scale optical characterization of local electronic states.

The researchers demonstrated TERRS on ultrathin zinc oxide layers epitaxially grown on a Ag(111) surface in which both physical and chemical enhancement mechanisms were operative. The underlying process was examined by modifying the localized surface plasmon resonance in a scanning tunneling microscope junction and recording different-thickness zinc oxide films that exhibited a slightly different electronic structure.

Tip-enhanced resonance Raman scattering is measured by a silver...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Tip-Enhanced_Raman_Spectroscopy_Provides_1-nm/p5/a65090 A65090 Fri, 06 Sep 2019 09:09:00 GMT
Scully Honored for Quantum Optics Research
Dr. Marlan O. Scully will be honored next month for his groundbreaking quantum optics research with the highest award given by The Optical Society.

Scully, a distinguished researchers at Baylor University, will accept the 2012 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus Quinn Prize at the society’s annual meeting in Rochester, N.Y., and will speak on “The Quantum Photocell: Increasing Efficiency via Quantum Coherence.”

Scully was cited for his lifetime of leadership in “research on all aspects of quantum optics, including the quantum theory of the laser, quantum coherence effects, quantum thermodynamics and the foundations of quantum mechanics,” OSA said.

“Quantum mechanics, the crowning achievement of...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Scully_Honored_for_Quantum_Optics_Research/p5/a51939 A51939 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT
SOFIA Completes GREAT Science Flight
The German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) experiment onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has completed its first observations, and scientists at the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have published the first round of results.

SOFIA makes its observations from a 2.7-m telescope contained within a modified Boeing 747SP flying in the upper atmosphere (as high as 13700 m). Cruising at this height reduces the amount of atmospheric turbulence it would have to look through and increases the amount of far-infrared wavelengths that would otherwise be absorbed by water vapor in the lower atmosphere.

Optical color image of...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/SOFIA_Completes_GREAT_Science_Flight/p5/a50907 A50907 Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT
Probe Method Reveals Rapid Phase Transitions
As materials undergo phase transitions, ultrafast “sonograms” are revealing the dynamic changes in trillionth-of-a-second intervals.

Common phase transitions include the melting of candle wax before it burns and the dissolving of sugar into water. They are purely structural alterations that produce dramatic changes in a material’s physical properties, and they play a significant role both in nature and in industrial processes from chip fabrication to steel making.

Now, a team of physicists from Vanderbilt University has collaborated with scientists at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin to shed new light on how vanadium dioxide (VO2), the fastest phase transition material known,...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Probe_Method_Reveals_Rapid_Phase_Transitions/p5/a50351 A50351 Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT
Leica Signs Gated STED Development Deal
Leica Microsystems signed an agreement with the Max Planck Society and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) to develop gated stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, the next generation of the superresolution technique. Under the contract, Leica Microsystems is licensed to commercialize and market the new technology.

Gated STED nanoscopy provides fundamentally improved spatial resolution over confocal microscopy in living cells. Here, the protein keratin is marked with the fluorescent protein Citrine in a living PtK2 cell. The insets show a magnified view of the marked areas, demonstrating the separation of features as small as 60 nm in the living cell. Fluorescence excitation at 485 nm, STED at 592-nm wavelength using a...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Leica_Signs_Gated_STED_Development_Deal/p5/a49115 A49115 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT
Squeezed light helps measure gravitational waves
A new “squeezed light” method improves the sensitivity and accuracy of the interferometers used to measure gravitational waves.

Observing the gravitational waves that result from supernova explosions and other cosmic events requires extremely sensitive metrology techniques. A gravitational wave’s signal is so small that it is usually dwarfed by the noise generated by the quantum mechanical fluctuations of the light beams, and this shot noise limits the accuracy of the interferometer.

A highly complex laser system produces light in the gravitational wave detector GEO600 that is particularly quiet. Courtesy of Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
A new “squeezing” process developed at...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Squeezed_light_helps_measure_gravitational_waves/p5/a49054 A49054 Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT
Photon-Detection Records Set
In 2009, the company entered into an exclusive agreement with Max Planck Innovation, the technology transfer organization of the Max Planck Society, for the licensing of its ultrafast, low-crosstalk silicon photomultiplier technology. Silicon photomultipliers offer very high photon-detection efficiency, ultrashort response times and extremely low power consumption, making them ideal for a variety of low-light applications such as fluorescence and molecular imaging.

“We are delighted to be able...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Photon-Detection_Records_Set/p5/a46252 A46252 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT
Optical Start-up https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Optical_Start-up_/p5/a40273 A40273 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT Ertl Awarded Chemistry Nobel
Gerhard Ertl, emeritus professor at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2007 for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry.

"The Max Planck researcher has succeeded in providing a detailed description of how chemical reactions take place on solid surfaces," the Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said in a statement Thursday.
Gerhard Ertl from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry 2007 (Photo: Max Planck Society/Norbert Michalke) "This science is important for the chemical industry and can help us to understand such varied processes as why iron rusts, how fuel cells function and how the catalysts in our cars work. Chemical...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Ertl_Awarded_Chemistry_Nobel/p5/a31210 A31210 Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT
'Garching Innovation' Now 'Max Planck Innovation' https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Garching_Innovation_Now_Max_Planck_Innovation/p5/a27162 A27162 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT