DESY Innovation Award for the project “Gas-phase sono-photonic light control“

This year's DESY Innovation Award goes to Christoph Heyl, who heads the Photonics Research and Innovation Group at DESY, and his team at DESY (Yannick Schrödel, Tino Lang), TU Darmstadt (Mario Kupnik, Sören Sönnecken, Claas Hartmann) and Aalen University (Regina Schuster, Anne Harth). Their joint project “Gas-phase sono-photonic light control” focuses on the contactless control of light in air or other gases through the use of intense ultrasonic waves. Possible applications include laser-plasma acceleration, the semiconductor industry, health technologies and industrial manufacturing processes.

The jury of the DESY Innovation Award sees the research team's project as a prime example of the innovative potential of basic research. “If we can control light, then we can open up fields of application that were previously impossible to achieve,” says Arik Willner, Chief Technology Officer at DESY. “I wish the innovative team even more ideas, even more patents and, above all, a lot of impact in their future careers. For DESY, this is a very, very important part of our mission.”

Every year, the DESY Innovation Award honors technology solutions or process optimizations by DESY employees that have a high innovation and market potential. The award ceremony takes place during the DESY DAY in November. The award committee is made up of an interdisciplinary assembly of jury members, including representatives from science, industry, venture capital providers and the innovation ecosystem in Hamburg. Find here more info about the DESY Innovation Award and its jury.