向綠色出發

文/Dieter Bimberg 譯/王卉 秦宇 田思聰

大約4年前，我在德國柏林工業大學（以下簡稱“TUB”）接待了來自中國科學院長春光學精密機械與物理研究所（以下簡稱“長春光機所”）的中國科學家和管理人員代表團。我了解到，該研究所是中國最古老的光學研究所，在眾多領域中都取得了許多卓越成就，從航天應用到半導體激光器。

Almost 4 years ago I hosted a delegation of Chinese Scientists and Administrators from the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics CIOMP, Chinese Academy of Sciences at Technical University of Berlin in Germany. I learned, the institute was the oldest optics institute in China with many great achievements in very diverse fields ranging from space applications to semiconductor lasers.

綠色光子學

長春光機所代表團訪問了我在TUB的納米光子學中心，該中心主要研究方向為納米半導體異質結構，包括材料光電特性的表征和基于此的半導體激光器、放大器和非易失性存儲器等。2017年，在長春光機所的推薦下，我獲得了中科院國際人才計劃（PIFI）國際杰出學者的資助，并接受了在Light Conference上作大會報告的邀請。Light Conference由長春光機所發起并組織，長春光機所與自然出版集團合作共同出版了當今國際光學界聞名的《Light: Science & Applications》期刊，Light Conference也由此產生。意外的是，我被建議考慮到長春光機所工作，建立一個新的研究領域。在過去的幾年中，我在柏林納米光子學中心的工作重點放在了提高光電器件效率及光電器件能耗最小化上，為可持續發展作貢獻。這項工作使我們三次獲得了SPIE（國際光學工程學會）的“綠色光子學獎”。

Green photonics

The delegation visited my vertically integrated “Center of Nanophotonics at TUB”, its portfolio ranging from pioneering development of novel nanostructured semiconductor heterostructures,across characterization of their optical and electrical properties to the development of advanced semiconductor lasers, amplifiers and nonvolatile memories. I was awarded a Distinguished Fellowship under the CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative PIFI – on the recommendation of CIOMP in 2017 and also accepted the invitation to give a plenary talk at the “Light conference”. The conference was sponsored and well organized by the CIOMP who cooperated with Nature Publication Group to co-publish a now world famous journal calledLight: Science & Applications. Quite unexpectedly I was asked to consider moving at least part time to CIOMP, building up a new research area. In the previous years I had focused the work of my center in Berlin on increasing the energy efficiency, minimizing the energy consumption of photonic and electronic devices, and thus contributing to a more sustainable world. For this work we had received three times the “Green Photonics Award” from SPIE in San Francisco.

中德綠色光子學研究中心

長春光機所那段時間了解到我正在減少在柏林的科研工作，尋找新的機構繼續開展科研工作。在此期間，我接受了在吉達阿卜都爾阿齊茲國王大學杰出兼職教授的職位，6年里每年冬天我都在那里開展教學和研究。

Chinese –German Center for Green Photonics

The team from CIOMP knew that I was scaling down my activities in Berlin, looking for a successor. In the mean time I had accepted a position as Distinguished Adjunct Professor at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, where I spent teaching and research time each winter for 6 years.

With the effort of my colleagues at CIOMP together with its Department of International Cooperation, in April 2018 I was again travelling to Changchun to sign the contract on becoming the Director of the “Bimberg Chinese-German Center for Green Photonics” of the CAS at CIOMP. I defined the main theme of the new Center as using Quantum Technologies for designing, fabricating and testing energy-efficient devices, modules and systems, imperative for the next generation internet or for automotive applications. The internet presently is using up about 8% of our raw electricity production. The consumption increases with any new application, like block chain or LIDAR. Thus technologies strongly reducing energy consumption are a must in the future, complementing well the existing traditional areas of CIOMP.

長春光機所成功舉行Bimberg中德綠色光子學研究中心簽字儀式（右五為本文作者）

在長春光機所同事及其國際合作處的共同努力下，2018年4月，我再次前往長春，簽約擔任長春光機所“Bimberg中德綠色光子學研究中心”主任。我將新中心的研究方向定為運用量子科技設計、制備和測試面向下一代互聯網和自動駕駛的節能器件、模塊和系統。目前互聯網能耗占世界總電子產品能耗的8%，隨著一些新應用（例如區塊鏈和激光雷達）的使用，能耗將繼續增加。因此，必須開展低能耗器件的研究，這同時補充了長春光機所現有的傳統研究領域。

我們之前討論過合同的細節，我對此非常滿意。合同中，我們計劃將建設中國科研院所第一個具有100 Gb/s以上超高速率測試能力的實驗室。

We had discussed the details of the contract before and I was very satisfied, that the planning for establishing a R&D Center including ultra-high speed/bit rate characterization of photonic devices, beyond 100 Gb/s, unique for Chinese Academia, was perfect.

在長光，一切皆能

我與一位來自柏林的年輕同事一起到長春，準備開啟這段無論在文化上還是在工作方式上都充滿挑戰的經歷。我被任命為中心主任，他成為中心的第一位員工，負責高速測試實驗室的建設。長春光機所向我們提供了一個空曠的大廳，里面空無一物。他們詢問了我對辦公室布置的想法。我給出一些建議，由他們的團隊制訂計劃。僅僅3個月，一個非常漂亮的多功能辦公區便呈現在面前，可供學生、職工和行政人員使用，我們于7月中旬正式遷入。

實驗室的建設速度是給我的第一個驚喜，隨后相應的實驗設備也開始安裝，即使是疫情期間，工作也有效地開展，我們也一直保持聯系。

4月18日幾位副教授向我介紹了他們的工作，我選擇了其中一位在器件工藝制備和超凈實驗室建設方面有豐富經驗的人來計劃改建超凈間。此外，我們也開始計劃采購歐洲頂尖公司的新型設備，并籌建高速測試實驗室。經過半年的時間，我們在柏林工業大學進行了設備的驗證和測試，獲得了報價，并最終向長春光機所所長和各個部門的負責人員介紹了完整的計劃。3個小時內，他們根據我的建議作出了決定，在2019年伊始，財務經費就可以使用了，這是我職業生涯中的又一項紀錄。

Together we can at CIOMP

I arrived indeed together with a younger colleague from Berlin, who was ready to join me for this cultural and organizational adventure. I signed for becoming the Director, and he signed as the first staff and faculty member of the Center, now being in charge of building up the ultra-high frequency lab. Our local host showed us a large empty hall with really nothing inside, and asked me about the arrangement of offices. I took some decisions and the local team made a plan. Within 3 months, an absolutely beautiful office area for students, faculty, and administrative staff was created and we moved in, middle of July.

The impressive speed of construction was the first surprise. High speed internet and all kind of other technical infrastructure was installed later and proved to work efficiently during the COVID 19 times now, to keep stable interaction.

Some associate professors had presented their work to me in April 18 and I selected one of them with large experience in device processing for shaping the clean rooms, I inherited as user. We started planning to add novel equipment mostly from leading European companies to the processing facility. The ultra-high frequency lab had to become build-up from scratch. It took half a year to test most advanced equipment destined for CIOMP at TU Berlin, getting the quotations and finally presenting the complete plan to the Director of CIOMP and his team.Within 3 hours, decisions were taken to go ahead as suggested by me, and beginning of the new Chinese Year in 2019 the finances were available, again a record during all my professional life.

我們按照中科院儀器購買流程，在幾個月內成功地從歐洲、美國、中國等頂級設備商處購置了頂級設備，所有設備在2019年年底至2020年年初到位，并且大部分設備自2020年開始就投入使用。另外一些設備的安裝由于疫情暫且無法完成。

在設備購置期間，我前往中國的一些公司和學術機構，討論和計劃開展合作研究。我們計劃籌備第一屆亞洲垂直腔面發射激光器日會議，得到了國際上多家公司的贊助和支持，原定于2020年8月召開，但由于疫情，會議延期到2021年5月。

現在我們中心的研究團隊有德國人、印度人，當然還有中國人。許多國外的新成員也在準備著等待疫情好轉之后來中心訪問以及開展研究工作。讓我們祈禱疫情早點結束吧！

在這短短的兩年中，實現想法的速度驚人，積極思考、合作意識以及為提高國際知名度而共同付出的努力都令我感到震驚。換句話說：在長光，一切皆能。

We of course fully worked within the framework of the administrative procedures of CAS, but managed to place the orders, again mostly to leading European, some Chinese and US companies within a few months. All the equipment arrived between end of 2019 to beginning 2020 and most of it is in operation since the beginning of 2020. Some installations have to be completed, once the lock-down due to COVID 19 is completely over.

The time between decision taking about purchase and arrival of equipment was well used to travel to many companies and academic institutions all-over in China, to discuss and plan cooperations. The first conference, the Asian VCSEL-DAY was planned for August 2020, received good financial support worldwide and was just shifted to May 2021.

The research team of the Center consists today of German, Indian, and of course Chinese students and scientists. A number of new members from abroad are sitting on their luggage and are waiting that travelling is re-established between Europe and China. Let’s keep fingers crossed.

Bimberg中德綠色光子學研究中心辦公室