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DFG Priority Program - Active Micro-optics

Tracing Nature's Vision

dfg Welcome to the Priority Program "Active Micro-optics" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Here, you will find information on our research objectives, the individual research projects, links to our researchers'  publications and the various activities of the program in general.

 

Nature is our most accomplished teacher. Throughout  millions of years, evolution tailored the sight of different species to meet particular demands of optical analyses. Within the framework of the priority program Active Micro-optics, 15 research groups are now facing the challenge of imitating such natural optical systems on a microsystems basis. Our teams aim at using Nature's expertise for scientific pursposes in order to facilitate medical diagnoses or optimise production processes.

 
Initially, the activities of the first three years of the program were focused on basic research with the goal of expanding the capabilities and applications of tunable micro-optics. In nationwide collaborations, our research teams developed new materials, components and systems for active optical microsystems. Currently, we are focusing on the integration of these new components and actuation mechanisms into technical micro-models. These try to imitate the optical functions of a variety of natural systems - ranging from the human (one-aperture) eye and insects' compound eyes  to the uniquely trinocular vision of the mantis shrimp.  

 

auge mottenauge fangschreckenkrebsauge2
human eye compound eyes 
(copyright wikimedia)		 trinocular eye of the
mantis shrimp
(copyright T. Groroth)

 

The program's coordination lies in the hands of the Laboratory for Micro-optics, in the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg.  Should you have any questions regarding the scientific or technical aspects of active micro-optics, please don't hesitate to contact us directly. 

 

 

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PhD Exchange 2012 with École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, CH

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