PhoNa • Photonic Nanomaterials

In summer 2009, an advanced research initiative on Photonic Nanomaterials (PhoNa) led by the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena has succeeded in a highly competitive call of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for excellence in research and innovation. As a result, a focused research program on Photonic Nanomaterials will be established, starting in 2010. This joined effort gathers a number of leading German research institutions from the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Society, and the Fraunhofer Society together with partners from Germany's Photonics industry. The PhoNa consortium will conduct research on a broad spectrum of linear and nonlinear Photonic Nanomaterials, as e.g. metamaterials, photonic crystals, plasmonics, diffractive structures, and their application in fields such as biology, chemistry and material sciences. For the upcoming five years this program will secure major funding for this field of research, which is understood to be essential to assure progress in optics and photonics.

The research initiative PhoNa is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the program "Spitzenforschung und Innovation in den Neuen Ländern" (support code 03IS2101A) and by the Thuringian Ministry for Education, Science, and Culture in the ProExcellence program.