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PTB to Support Unique Research Center

04.10.2018

Weltweit einmaliges Forschungszentrum mit PTB-Beteiligung (Foto: Carpus + Partner)

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 laboratories designed for highprecision quantum-level experiments, the building contains three large-scale facilities used in research, each of which is unique worldwide and enables research at the highest possible level. These facilities are the Einstein Elevator (a 40 m tall free-fall simulator); a facility allowing the development and production of optical fibers; and a so-called “atomic fountain” (the Very Large Baseline Atom Interferometer – VLBAI).