School/University

Studierende von MINT-Fächern haben in diesem Sommer die Chance, ein zweimonatiges Forschungspraktikum in der Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt (PTB) zu absolvieren. Unter dem Motto „Dein genauester Sommer“ geht es vom 1. August bis zum 27. September 2019 um metrologische Genauigkeit, die Kunst des Messens. In der PTB werden die Messverfahren der Zukunft entwickelt und für die Industrie und die Forschung praktisch nutzbar gemacht. Die Themen der Forschungsprojekte reichen von der Erzeugung und Abfrage von Qubits für Atomuhren über die Forschung an ultrastabilen Lasern bis zur interferometrischen Längenmessung zur Weitergabe der Einheit Meter. Hochqualifizierte Kolleginnen und Kollegen sowie die erstklassige technische Ausstattung der PTB bieten die einmalige Basis für eigene Forschungserfolge. Die Bewerbungsfrist beginnt am 1. März und endet am 30. April 2019.

Die Deutsche Telekom hat angekündigt, den Anschluss des Telefonzeitdienstes der PTB, Rufnummer 0531 512038, Ende Februar 2019 auf IP-basierte Telefonie umzustellen. Die PTB empfiehlt, bestehende Systeme über eine zusätzlich geschaltete, IP-basierte Leitung zu testen.

In the new MPG-PTB-RIKEN Centre for Time, Constants and Fundamental Symmetries, experimental physicists with a passion for precision will jointly tackle forefront topics in fundamental physics such as the question for the constancy in time of natural constants or the subtle differences between matter and antimatter. This new initiative started on January 1, 2019; the official opening ceremony will be on April 8, 2019 at RIKEN in Tokyo, Japan.

On the occasion of their 26^th General Conference on Weights and Measures (Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, CGPM) on 16 November 2018 in Versailles, the signatory states of the Metre Convention resolved to fundamentally reform the International System of Units (SI). This resolution stipulates that, in the future, all SI units will be based on the values laid down for seven selected natural constants. In passing this resolution, the General Conference has followed a recommendation issued by the International Committee on Weights and Measures (Comité international des poids et mesures, CIPM) – the world’s supreme expert committee on metrology. The new definitions of the units will come into force on 20 May 2019, World Metrology Day.

PTB is now home to a new publication, Junge Wissenschaft, an online journal (https://www.jungewissenschaft.ptb.de). Young scientists (no older than 23 years old) can publish their findings in accordance with the usual rules applying to scientific publications – including a peer review process. Junge Wissenschaft is published, edited, and editorially supported by PTB’s Press and Information Office. PTB’s considerable role in the publication of this journal dates back many years, starting with a close relationship between its founding editor (Prof. Dr. Paul Dobrinski, 1927–2009) and the then President of PTB (Prof. Dr. Ernst O. Göbel). This relationship came about due to the mutual interest of the journal and PTB in supporting junior scientists in the natural sciences.

A collaborative research centre (CRC) on diagnostic radiology called “Matrix in Vision” has been created at the Charité university hospital in Berlin (contact: Prof. Dr. Bernd Hamm). The Freie Universität Berlin, the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing and PTB are also involved in this CRC in addition to Charité. This collaborative research center, which is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with 11.5 million euros, has been established to find out how pathological changes to the extracellular matrix (the substance in which the body’s cells are embedded) can be visualized by means of diagnostic radiology. The scientists involved hope that their methods will contribute to the early detection of diseases. Members of staff from Division 8 of PTB are overseeing two sub-projects on quantitative and magnetic imaging.

A new association, the German National Committee of CIE (Deutsches Nationales Komitee der Internationalen Beleuchtungskommission CIE – DNK-CIE) was founded at PTB on 5 April 2018. Dr. Armin Sperling was elected as the first chairperson of the new association.

The new building housing the Hannover Institute of Technology (HITec) at Leibniz University Hannover was inaugurated on 6 July. This institute is the first in Europe to unite basic and applied research and technology development on quantum physics and geodesy under one roof. The main partner organizations directly involved in HITec’s research program are: the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics/Albert Einstein Institute (AEI), the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), and PTB.

The Hannover Institute of Technology brings together three research branches from the fields of physics and geodesy: quantum technologies, optical technologies and the development and application of quantum sensors.

The unique infrastructure in the new, recently inaugurated research building will be available to more than 100 scientists. In addition to...

Bidirectional amplifiers are necessary for the transmission of ultra-stable optical frequencies over long-distance optical fiber links in order to compensate for the optical loss of approximately 20 dB per 100 kilometers. Brillouin fiber amplifiers developed at PTB support such bidirectional operation with a gain of up to 45 dB and have been successfully installed in the international optical fiber link between Braunschweig and Paris. These amplifiers have now been outfitted with a new, more efficient optical module that optimizes the input coupling of the pump laser while minimizing signal losses within the setup. By means of an additional monitor port, the polarization between the signal and the pump laser can now be precisely adjusted and permanently monitored. (Technology Offer 466)

Tiny amounts of certain gases can have considerable effects on human health, the environment and industrial processes. It is now possible to detect such gas quantities with enhanced sensitivity resolution by means of a Herriott cell developed at PTB. Plane mirrors inside the cell make it more effective, allowing the optical path length to be increased by more than one order of magnitude at an equal volume of the cell, which also improves the detection limit. For instance, with a mirror radius of 7 cm and a distance of 1 m between the mirrors, it is possible to achieve an effective optical path length of more than a kilometer (instead of 100 m until recently). (Technology Offer 397)