Christoph Heyl and his team at the laser experiment (Credit: DESY)
To enable new research ideas with many uncertainties, early funding is crucial for further thriving developments. Christoph Heyl, DESY scientist and group leader at the Helmholtz-Institute Jena (HI Jena), had the idea for a new project targeting the deflection of laser beams using ultrasonic waves in air. Boosted by the DESY generator programme in 2020 and supported further by the ‘Klaus Tschira Stiftung’, the project started very successfully.
Exactly these first experiments have now laid the foundation for a much broader project, the ‘SOPHIMA’ (Sono-photonics in metafluids) project, funded by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung (CZS). Heyl’s team at the HI Jena together with the project partners at TU Darmstadt as well as partners at Aalen University is among the first five teams who will receive 750,000 Euro over the next two years. Only recently the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, one of the largest private foundations in Germany, launched the ‘CZS Wildcard programme’ to promote unconventional and interdisciplinary research in the STEM field.
The ‘SOPHIMA’ project will employ ultrasound waves in gases to control light without interacting with solid-state materials and thus realise novel optical components such as modulators, lenses or even waveguides. At the interface of nonlinear optics, laser physics and electrical engineering/ultrasonic technology, the project opens up a new research field with great potential for innovative scientific and industrial applications.
Further information: Link to the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
