Green Technology: To Solve a Pressing Economic and Ecological Problem

Question: Please introduce your motherland to Chinese readers.

Germany is a federal republic consisting of 16 “states” having all their own parliaments, governments and legislation in defined areas. The members of parliaments are elected in general elections and are either paid for part time or fully time work. There is a distribution of power between the republic and the states. Education including universities is state business. Defense and foreign affairs are republic business. Here are similarities to the Chinese provincial system. The population and the population density of German cities is much lower than that of Chinese cities. Berlin, its capital has less than 4 Million inhabitants. 41 % of its territory are parks, forests and waterways. The length of its waterways and size of its many lakes is much larger than that any European city. More than 100 000 boat populate the lakes.

Question: What do you think of Changchun? What impresses you most about this city?

I am very impressed about the speed how Changchun got a new airport terminal. I am similarly impressed of the speed building modern Changchun highways. Everything I pay is via mobile phone using e.g. wechat, still smallest amounts, makes life easier. In my motherland, mostly cash is used, at least by middle aged and older people.

Question: What is your favorite Chinese food?

I like noodles very much. I was very impressed by the noodles that are made freshly for every bowl of soup in the CIOMP dining hall since the first time I had lunch. Noodles are now next to rice my favorite Chinese food.

Question: When was your first connection with Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP)? Can you recall a scene or how you felt the first time you visited CIOMP?

Gunter: My first connection with CIOMP was in Berlin. Prof. Tong Cunzhu visited the Center of NanoPhotonics of Prof. Dieter Bimberg at Technical University and we had a very interesting and exciting conversation for several hours. Prof. Tong definitely created my interest in China and CIOMP.

The first flight (and all later ones) from Berlins Airport in Tegel to CGQ was always very hard and time consuming. At my first arrival the plane landed too early and I had to wait a little for my contact person to pick me up. A stranger came to me and was offering help. Without me speaking Chinese, we had a very nice and friendly conversation. When Prof. Tian came to pick me up, I had the first personal connection to a scientist, with whom I worked since then at CIOMP. Since this first meeting a friendship developed, showing that the people of our two countries are closer than the many thousand kilometers distance between Changchun and Berlin might indicate and the different of cultures would suggest.

Question: What are your impressions of CIOMP? How do you feel about working with CIOMP?

Work at CIOMP is very professional. The offices of our new center were created very fast in a few weeks only and are state of the art. Our technical facilities, like clean rooms and high-speed lab allow us due to high speed internet to communicate and work even during the Corona pandemic. The students - our coworkers - are outstandingly educated and are highly motivated. Everybody who is working for CIOMP seems to be an expert in his field. We got a warm welcome and were well accepted by all these experts who are treating us as friends.

Question: Why did you choose to work with CIOMP?

End of 2019 the European Union has presented the new strategy till 2050 named “European Green Deal”. The strategy combines technological progress with climate neutrality. Not least because of Greta Thunberg that complex issue was becoming main stream. Internet consumes up to 8% of electrical energy production in most countries with increase of 60% per year increase in use of the internet because of new applications. Consequently, we must combine increase of data rates with reduction of energy consumption, which means we need to develop technologies of “Green Photonics”. In the today’s world it is hard to believe that in 2017, when planning of the Green Photonics Center has started, the world was much different. CIOMP is giving us a platform to do research on the topic “Green Photonics” we had pioneered the last ten years and thus contributes to initiate changes to a sustainable society. One might say that CIOMP has chosen to work with us.

Question: What do you think are the advantages of CIOMP?

Since the decision about founding the “Green Center” was made, the implementation of our ideas, like designing and implementing the leading high-speed laboratory at an academic institution in China was done extremely fast. Probably, faster than anywhere in the world. Whenever we needed, we had the support of the leaders of CIOMP, in particular its director, Prof. Jia Ping. Each participant of the project was giving his and her best. All coworkers at CIOMP, also in the administration like department of International Cooperation, HR or finance departments, are highly motivated and well educated, despite the problem being forced to communicate with us in a foreign language. So, we have now at CIOMP perfect conditions to do our research.

Question: What do you think is your greatest contribution to CIOMP?

Many companies and academic institutions in China are now aware of the leadership of the Bimberg Chinese-German Center at CIOMP in the area of energy efficient and high brilliance photonic and electro-optic devices and systems. I managed to create in originally empty space the finest Chinese lab for characterizing such devices, starting from identifying the most advanced suppliers of equipment to finally getting everything to work. Our group had experience in these fields since many years. Our work was awarded e.g. in 2012, 2014, and 2015 already with the SPIE Photonics West “Green Photonics Award”. This experience helped and was transferred now to new members and students of our Center. The quality of the lab and the knowledge I can have transfer guarantee a perfect ecosystem for future generations of scientists.

Question: Would you like to briefly talk about your work at CIOMP? How can this impact the lives of ordinary people or society?

We are living in a growing information society. Bits are our blood and the countless numbers of optical fibers in millions of datacenters are the veins of the information flowing through. The energy that is necessary for ordinary actions like a Google or Baidoo search could power a low energy light bulb (10W) for ~100 seconds. This is a lot, taking into account that nearly every human being is using the internet part of the day. It is easy to understand that with the exponential increase of the internet data traffic the overall power consumption is increasing exponentially. Unfortunately, our energy resources are limited, such that we run into a pressing economic and ecological problem.

We are developing technologies and strategies to solve that problem. Our lasers and integrated laser systems can reduce the power consumption that is necessary to transmit 1 bit by 75% in concert with an increase of speed of the optical link. In parallel to the development of lasers for ecological data communication we are using our “Green Technology”to develop low power consumption lasers for sensing applications.

Question: Please express your expecation for CIOMP.

The approach to further develop CIOMP to an institution well known and attractive for international scientist shall be successfully continued. Input from the best from all over world will contribute to the success.