Students from Coburg University visit MPL to learn about our research.

As part of science communication at the institute, the MPL always opens its doors to groups of pupils and students, who can gain insights into research through lectures and guided tours. On January 18, a group of 15 physics students from Coburg University of Applied Sciences was at the institute, accompanied by Prof. Thorsten Uphues, who represents the topics around optics and laser physics in Coburg, and faculty coordinator Dr. Simone Plüisch. They were particularly interested in research with photonic crystal fibers at MPL.

The group was first welcomed by Dr. Michael Frosz, head of the Technology Development and Service Unit (TDSU) for fiber fabrication and the glass studio. In his presentation, Dr. Frosz explained what makes the photonic crystal fibers (PCF) produced by his group so special and different from classical glass fibers. He also showed the manufacturing process for the various PCFs produced for scientists at MPL. In a second presentation, Alexandra Popp, from Birgit Stiller's research group, described how her group uses PCFs to conduct experiments testing the interactions of light and sound waves. As a result, the students were also able to gain insight into the group's actual lab work. After a visit to the lab of Stiller's group, the research groups of Kanwarpal Singh and Pascal Del'Haye also showed their lab areas before the Coburg student group was given a brief introduction to the field of quantum communication by Kevin Jaksch from Christoph Marquardt's team at the end.