Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS“The expansion of our equipment opens up fantastic new analytical possibilities”
How would you rate 2024 from the perspective of the business unit "Optical Materials and Technologies"?
2024 was an exceptionally successful year for us in three aspects. Firstly, we achieved great results in applied research. Secondly, we have laid important foundations for continuing to operate successfully over the next ten years, primarily by investing in new equipment on a very substantial scale. Thirdly, we were able to acquire two projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the field of laser inertial confinement fusion. We are active in large and very powerful consortia to improve the conditions for the extreme challenges these technologies pose for optical materials. This also opens up many points of contact for further research issues that are highly relevant to our customers.
What profile does your business area offer clients and what do they value about working with you?
Our team is dedicated to application-oriented research and development for optical technologies and photonics. We support our partners with microstructure diagnostics of optical substrates, optical thin films, and hybrid systems. In addition, we develop new materials with optimized property profiles, such as glasses and glass ceramics, based on our microstructure expertise. In photonics, the fields of application range from laser optics and thin-film technologies to lithography and the consumer sector. A new field that we are currently developing is the use of glass-ceramics via 3D printing.
Optical components are being used in an increasing number of applications, such as virtual reality glasses, quantum technology or sensors in Industry 4.0. What challenges does this entail?
New fields of application always mean new challenges for materials. Previously unknown and critical phenomena can occur during development, processing and use. This is where microstructure diagnostics offers valuable insights to better understand material behavior and processes. Based on this, solutions can be developed to ensure the reliability and performance of new technologies. We are currently demonstrating this using the example of laser inertial confinement fusion: the optical components must be able to withstand extreme conditions, such as continuous laser radiation in the petawatt range. The coatings used must contain only minimal contamination and all optical components must have a high level of structural integrity. The expertise that we are currently developing in such projects on high-power laser optics can then also be transferred to other fields of application in which the highest possible resistance to increasing operational demands is required. In addition, these projects generally increase our analytical and diagnostic capabilities for new subject areas.
What do you expect to be a highlight in 2025 and what will be challenging?
I am really looking forward to the collaboration within our new consortia and the work on the topics we want to advance together there. In the new year, many investment projects will be implemented, which will provide us with fantastic new equipment. As a highlight, we will commission a novel spectrometer paired with a fully equipped scanning/transmission electron microscope in the second half of the year. In material analysis, the additional equipment will enable us to explore completely new diagnostic topics, such as elucidating the role of polyvalent elements in materials or evaluating mechanical properties on the nanometer scale. This expansion of our methods is already underpinned by new projects. So in 2025, we will be able to work intensively on transferring basic research into applications to support our clients.