Cooperating with Japan

The terahertz range, which lies between microwave and infrared radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum, and imaging in smallest dimensions are two research areas of Dr. Erik Bründermann, head of the Accelerator Research department at the ANKA Synchrotron Radiation Facility at KIT. The physicist aims at combining both areas in basic research. This could lead to new applications for example in non-invasive medical diagnostics, data acquisition with extremely high temporal resolution, ultra-fast data transmission and synchronization of particle accelerators. Erik Bründermann, who came to KIT one year ago, has been working with researchers of the Shizuoka University in Japan in interdisciplinary projects for several years. Recently, Bründermann was elected "Honorable Guest Professor of Shizuoka University" for the fourth time in a row. Every year, he stays up to five weeks in Hamamatsu for his research. During this time he is affiliated with the Department of Nanovision Technology of the Graduate School of Science and Technology.

 

Bust of Kenjiro Takayanagi, who transmitted the katakana letter イ by all-electronic means with Braun’s cathode ray tube (Braunsche Röhre). The bust is located in front of the Research Institute of Electronics (RIE) at the Hamamatsu Campus of Shizuoka University (SU)

 

Currently, Erik Bründermann together with Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Inokawa, Prof. Dr. Norihisa Hiromoto, and their research teams are engaged in a Cooperative Research Project "Extreme-performance diagnostics in time-and-space for sources emitting terahertz transients" to develop terahertz cameras for imaging that use near-field effects. The project is supported by the Research Institute of Electronics (RIE), headed by its director Prof. Dr. Hidenori Mimura. Shizuoka University is home of an IEEE Milestone received in 2009 for Kenjiro Takayanagi's development of electronic television, while KIT was awarded in 2014 with an IEEE Milestone for Heinrich Hertz's first generation and experimental proof of electromagnetic waves. This autumn, the city of Hamamatsu also hosts The Second International Symposium on Frontiers in THz Technology.