Welcome to the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics (IPQ)

June 2018: Scientists of IPQ, IMT and University of Washington have demonstrated the highest in-device electro-optic (EO) activity in a high-speed EO modulator so far. This was achieved by using the organic EO material JRD1, which is the result of theory-guided optimization of its molecular design. In the so-called silicon-organic hybrid integration concept, this material was combined with standard silicon-photonic waveguides, forming hybrid modulators. The devices operate very efficiently, enabling high-quality optical data transmission at 40 Gbit/s with ultra-low drive voltages as low as 140 mVpp. Thus, based on these devices, highly energy-efficient communication networks could be realized in the near future and the devices could be of prime importance for low-power information processing in tomorrow’s data centers.

Original publication: Optica

KIT Press release: German

July 2018: The IPQ/IMT project team "DELPHI - 3D Laser Lithography for Photonic Integration" will receive the Second Prize of the renowned Berthold-Leibinger Innovation Prize. The DELPHI project group, headed by Christian Koos, was dedicated to industrial adoption of femtosecond laser lithography as a tool for 3D additive nanofabrication in integrated photonics and has led to foundation of the start-up company Vanguard Photonics GmbH. The project builds upon multi-photon lithography for fabrication of single-mode photonic waveguides and free-form micro-optical elements for efficient coupling of optical microchips. The award ceremony will take place on September 21, 2018 in Ditzingen, Germany.

July 2018: The additive 3D nanostructure group of IPQ and IMT has demonstrated efficient coupling of III-V light sources to silicon photonic circuits using photonic wire bonding (PWB). The technique exploits direct-write two-photon lithography for in situ fabrication of three-dimensional freeform waveguides between optical chips. The work showed that the PWBs can have insertion losses as low as 0.4 dB and introduce no detrimental effect on the linewidth or the threshold of the DFB lasers. Combined with previously demonstrated chip-to-chip and fiber-to-chip connections, we expect photonic wire bonding to evolve into a universal integration platform for hybrid photonic multi-chip assemblies.

The published work is made as the cover of Optica Vol. 5, Issue 7, 2018.

Original publication: Optica

KIT Newsletter: German

March 2018: Scientists of IPQ and IMT have demonstrated microscopic beam-shaping elements that can be directly printed to the facets of optical chips or fibers by means of multi-photon lithography. The beam shaping elements comprise free-form lenses and mirrors as well as more complex multi-lens systems such as beam expanders. Facet-attached optical elements can dramatically relax alignment tolerances of optical coupling interfaces, thus paving the way to automated assembly of photonic multi-chip systems with unprecedented performance and versatility.

KIT Press release: German

Original publication: Nature Photonics

March, 2018: The OSA Foundation and Corning Inc. announced the winners of the annual Corning Outstanding Student Paper Competition at this year's Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC 2018), the largest conference and exhibit for optical communications and networking, with more than 15,500 attendees, 700 exhibitors from 65 countries, and over 850 peer reviewed technical presentations.

Christoph Füllner, PhD candidate at the IPQ, won the Grand Prize for his paper "Transmission of 80-GBd 16-QAM over 300 km and Kramers-Kronig Reception Using a Low-Complexity FIR Hilbert Filter Approximation" in a fierce competition among around 220 PhD submissions and five finalists.

The Corning Outstanding Student Paper Competition has been established in 2007. With three Grand Prize winners (2010, 2013, and 2018) and two honorable mentions (2012, 2016), the IPQ is demonstrating global leadership in the field.