JSC Participates in the DFG Programme "Tailored Disorder"

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is establishing 16 new Priority Programmes (SPP), in which researchers will investigate fundamental scientific questions in particularly topical or emerging areas of research over the next few years. One of the programmes is the SPP "Tailored Disorder" with eight partners from German universities and research institutes, among them Prof. Kristel Michielsen from JSC. The research will focus on the development of novel optical technologies.

The last several years have witnessed considerable progress in the field of nanooptics. Up until now, a maximum degree of regularity was thought to be a prerequisite for perfect functionality -- although nature itself yields a host of templates for how tailored disorder can be implemented on the smallest of structural scales. As such, the exact same starting material may produce the vibrant colours of the wings of a butterfly, while in beetles of the family Cyphochilus it yields a brilliant white, regularly scattered surface with an underlying three-dimensional nanoarchitecture. Only over the last couple of years have irregular structures been probed systematically for their potential relevance to optical applications. The programme partners will further tackle the potential inherent in this new class of materials.

from JSC News No. 224, 15 July 2014The programme is coordinated by Prof. Silke Christiansen from the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Berlin (HZB) and will receive DFG funding to the amount of approx. € 12 million between 2015 and, foreseeably, 2021.
(Contact: Prof. Kristel Michielsen, k.michielsen@fz-juelich.de)

from JSC News No. 224, 15 July 2014