Our Mission

Light is present in virtually all areas of life. It is involved in the majority of processes in nature and it has been one of the fundamental – and, perhaps, the oldest – subjects of philosophy, arts and scientific research.

At the Laboratory for Lightwave Metrology we develop femtosecond laser technology, aiming at expanding the understanding of light and its interaction with matter, the technological capabilities of generating, controlling and measuring light, and its scope of application to material characterization as well as to biology and medicine.

We bring together groups at three institutions, with research profiles reaching from basic science, over the development of novel optical techniques in fields such as biology and medicine, all the way to industry-related R&D. This makes the Laboratory for Lightwave Metrology a unique place of synergy and creativity.

At the Chair of Optical Quantum Metrology at the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität (RPTU) in Kaiserslautern we advance field-resolved optical metrology toward the fundamental sensitivity limit imposed by the quantum nature of light (→ Research).

The Optical Quantum Metrology Group within the Material Characterization Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics in Kaiserslautern develops electric-field-resolved metrology with a high technology readiness level, in particular aiming at material characterization applications in close collaboration with the industry (→ Research).

The Field-Resolved Optical Precision Metrology Group within the Spectroscopy and Imaging Department at the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technology in Jena customizes our technologies in view of new applications to biology and medicine. These include high-throughput label-free infrared flow cytometry, sub-wavelength electric-field-resolved microscopy of cells and tissue and high-resolution infrared spectroscopy of gases (→ Research).

We actively participate in RPTU’s education program (→ Teaching) and are constantly seeking motivated interns, bachelor, master and doctoral students at all our locations (→ Join us).

We are part of the DFG Excellence Cluster “Balance of the Microverse”, members of the Landesforschungszentrum Optik und Materialwissenschaften OPTIMAS, and funded by the European Union (ERC, LIVE, 101088303, see legal notice).