INTERVIEW which helps us recruit talented scientists and engineers. are academic researchers. Industry accounts for less than 15 % of our business, often in internal R & D labs. Many of them are major technology companies, but due to confidentiality we cannot disclose names.
Which scientific domains are the most important for PicoQuant today? Life sciences were central from the beginning, even before the term biophotonics existed. Our first instruments were designed to study fluorescent molecules and biological tissue. Materials science has grown strongly in the last decade with the soar of solar cells, displays and semiconductors. Quantum technologies are also important: our lasers and timing electronics are used for single-photon source characterization, quantum communication, and quantum optics experiments. I would roughly say: 40 % life sciences, 40 % material science, 15 % quantum, and 5 % metrology.
How have you dealt with the rise of quantum technologies? As mentioned PicoQuant is mainly engaged in the field of enabling technologies for the quantum market. Since our lasers and time tagging electronics are not tied to a certain application, it very often only needs small modifications to make these products even more attractive to other user groups. To achieve this, we are in close contact with the community to include their needs into the next generation of our products or in the addition of specialized features for this user group. One very successful example is the development of a dedicated software interface“ snAPI” as well as a specialized GUI for our time taggers because the needs as well as the language in this field is different compared with life science applications.
How do you organize the R & D activities? Before we start an R & D project, we naturally need very good ideas. We draw these ideas from many sources and try to use a good mix of technology push and market pull. The wealth of experience of our employees is particularly helpful in this regard, but the feedback from our users, discussions at conferences and our workshops, and a regular review of specialist literature are also very important. A third source is cooperation projects with leading international and national research institutions. Of course, we cannot implement everything, so we use a software tool in which all ideas are discussed, moderated and evaluated. Our experts then examine particularly risky aspects in preliminary projects to assess their feasibility before the actual development projects begin. We achieve the best results in these projects when the teams are highly interdisciplinary, and we also obtain feedback from key opinion leaders during the prototype phase.
Is Berlin a great city to establish a company in optics and photonics? Definitely. Berlin is one of the top campuses worldwide, with strong universities and research institutes. It’ s also a very attractive city for young people,
What challenges do you face today? Tariffs and trade barriers are currently a burden, especially with the US market, which represents one-third of our business. We try to absorb some of the costs ourselves and share the rest with our partners and customers. More generally, forecasting for the future has become difficult in recent years. But we continue to invest in new microscopes, new lasers, and new timing electronics. Life sciences and materials will remain strong; quantum is more uncertain, especially quantum computing, where we have decided not to engage in system-level projects but rather in the enabling technology sector with our laser and time-tagging solution.
Looking back over the last 30 years, what do you consider your greatest achievements? On a personal level, being part of the Nobel Prize story in 2014, even with a tiny contribution, was very emotional. On a company level, I would say our greatest achievement is having created a stable, independent company that has lasted almost 30 years, supporting science worldwide. I am no longer the main technical expert, but my role is to support our 120 people, give them resources, and make sure PicoQuant will still be here in 20 years. Above all, I am proud that we have stayed true to our long-term vision: remaining independent, fostering our scientific spirit, and supporting the community by making complex instrumentation more accessible for a broader field of researchers.
How do you see the future of photonics? Photonics will remain a fantastic field to investigate. There are so many opportunities: from quantum technologies to new materials, from advanced displays to medical diagnostics. For young researchers, I can only say: it’ s a great opportunity to build a career in optics and photonics because light will remain central to solving key challenges in society.
18 www. photoniques. com I Photoniques 134