The physicists in the "Ultrafast Nano-Optics" working group at the Institute of Physics at the University of Oldenburg are partners in the "Global Research Lab" programme initiated by the Korean government. With this programme, the Korean government is promoting long-term cooperation between leading Korean and international research groups in the future fields of information technology, biotechnology and environmental technology. One of five projects approved this year is being led by Prof Namkyoo Park from Seoul National University and Prof Dr Christoph Lienau from the University of Oldenburg.

In their project "Nano-Plasmonic Integrated Circuits for Ultrafast Information Processing", the researchers are working together with three Korean research groups on the development of new nanostructured components for optical information processing. The aim of the project is to develop and test new component concepts for nanostructured lasers and ultrafast switches made of metal-semiconductor hybrid structures. Another focus of the work will be on the realisation of new solar cell concepts using metallic nanostructures.

The project is being funded by the Korean government for nine years with a total of 4.5 million US dollars. Of this, 900,000 US dollars will go to the Oldenburg working group. "We are proud that our project is one of the two winners out of 25 excellent proposals in the field of information technology and are very much looking forward to working with our Korean colleagues," emphasised Lienau.

More information

Contact: Prof. Dr Christoph Lienau, Institute of Physics, Ultrafast Nano-Optics Group,
Tel. 0441/798-3485, email: c h.lienau@uol.de