Science Council Recommends Building of
New Research Institute for Quantum Technologies in Hannover

Hannover Institute of Technology receives excellent evaluation

The Science Council has recommended the building of a new research institute at Leibniz Universität Hannover. As one of 31 national applications for new research buildings, the concept for Hannover Institute of Technology was judged outstanding in all categories and rated as a forward-looking research facility by the Science Council. With this institute, Leibniz Universität Hannover plans to build an integrated research centre for quantum technologies, with the participation of the fields of physics, geodesy and engineering. The research building costing some 30 million Euros is designed for a staff of 100 to 120 and is due to be built over a period of four years from 2012 to 2015.

„We are of course extremely pleased about today’s Science Council decision,” says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erich Barke, President of Leibniz Universität Hannover. “This recommendation for a new research building brings us one significant step further in our efforts to establish not only Leibniz Universität Hannover but also the whole of Hannover as a top international research location in the research areas of quantum physics, optical technologies and geodesy,” Barke continues.

With Hannover Institute of Technology or HITec for short, a forward-looking research infrastructure is to be created in Hannover, combining under one roof fundamental research, applied research and technological development in the field of quantum physics and geodesy for the first time in the European research landscape.
The main aim is to develop forward-looking, high-precision measurement technologies and quantum sensors derived from this. In HITec, the necessary fundamental research in the area of quantum research will be advanced, in order to create tailor-made instruments to be used in the laboratory, in the field or in space. Research activities focus on the development, testing and production of such sensor systems, which will then be employed in fundamental physics, measuring and observing the earth and in precision metrology.

HITec can build on outstanding expertise in the areas of quantum optics, atom optics, laser physics and geodesy at Leibniz Universität Hannover. The excellence cluster QUEST (Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research), has enabled significant preparatory work to be successfully carried out, thus laying the foundations for the HITec research programme.

The development and testing of high-precision quantum sensors require special laboratory conditions, and the HITec facilities will meet the high demands of a sophisticated infrastructure. “The laboratories, test environments and the three planned large-scale facilities of the institute cannot be found in this quality and combination at any other German or international research institution,” explains Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Ertmer, physicist at the Institute of Quantum Optics and coordinator of the excellence cluster QUEST.

The research building will have a roof-top measuring station, where an open laser beam connection can be operated and satellites observed directly. In addition three large-scale facilities are planned, which will be unique in this combination anywhere in the world. Probably the most eye-catching of them will be the so called free-fall simulator: a facility where experiments can be carried out at a high repetition rate under conditions of weightlessness. A further speciality is a facility which makes it possible to develop and produce glass fibres suitable e.g. for applications in space. The third planned large-scale facility is a so-called atomic fountain (Very Large Baseline Atom Interferometer, VLBAI), which is to be used in the research, testing and development of high-precision measurement technologies.

HITec’s building concept also includes the use of an existing building at Leibniz Universität Hannover. This building, which is currently occupied by working groups of the Institute of Gravitational Physics, is to be modernised and connected to the new building. The sophisticated laboratory conditions with high quality requirements are to be created in one step in the new building.

Meldung vom 02.08.2011