PTB News 3/2003 (150 kB) PTB News 3/2003, English edition, Issue December 2003On October 2, 2003, PTB's new Albert Einstein Building for Optics was inaugurated. At its Braunschweig site, PTB now has a laboratory building at its disposal which – with a floor area of approximately 3100 m2 replacing a pre-war building – offers excellent conditions for the metrological tasks and new optical developments.
The building was constructed in three years at a cost of approximately 19 million euro. With it PTB wishes to strengthen its fields of work in photonics and optics – considered to be key technologies for industrial growth sectors. This development became possible through the increased national support to raise the international competitiveness of German industry and to create new jobs as required by the agenda "Optical technologies for the 21st century".
The outstanding environmental conditions at the Albert Einstein Building (stable temperature, almost free of vibrations, defined air humidity, high air cleanliness with only small numbers of disturbing particles) make it possible to venture metrologically into new areas. On the one hand, into a larger scale: in future, highly precise photometric measurements will be carried out on novel light sources with a novel robot goniophotometer in a volume six meters in diameter. On the other hand, into smaller space: quantitative microscopy will be performed in the submicrometer range on smallest structures in micro-, nano- and semiconductor technology. In addition to photometry, work at the Albert Einstein Building will focus on metrology for optical communications technology, photovoltaics, integrated and micro-optics and different areas of applied radiometry.