Partner – EPFL     Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland In 2003, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne celebrates its 150th anniversary. Together with ETH Zürich, it is one of the two technical universities directly funded by the Swiss federal government. The institute for Biomedical Imaging, Optics and Engineering (formerly Institute of Applied Optics) hosts approximately 90 scientists (including PhD students). It conducts basic research in the fields of micro- and nano-structuring, waveguide and fiber optics, imaging techniques, and applications in the bio-medical field etc. It is involved in a large number of international and national research projects with universities, other research institutions and industrial partners. Dr. Markus Pollnau, responsible of the EPFL part of the DT-CRYS project, has 12 years of research experience ranging from crystal and thin-film growth, surface micro-structuring, optical and spectroscopic characterization of actively doped materials, high-power diode-pumped solid-state lasers and nonlinear frequency conversion to bio-medical applications and theoretical investigations. He was a “Human Capital and Mobility” grant holder of the European Union from 1996-1998 and has led a number of Swiss national research projects since 1999. He is currently preparing 3 book chapters in the field of solid-state light sources and has published more than 120 papers in reviewed journals and international conferences. He is chairman of the committee “Solid-State Lasers” of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in Baltimore, MD, 2003, and San Francisco, CA, 2004. Dr. Patrik Hoffmann has conducted independent research with his research group at the Institute for Biomedical Imaging, Optics and Engineering since 1993. He has worked on nano-deposition and nano-structuring using a variety of different methods and on a number of different materials. In 1999, the two research groups of Dr. Markus Pollnau and Dr. Patrik Hoffmann established an internal collaboration in the field of thin-film growth and micro-structuring of transition-metal-ion doped planar and channel waveguide materials such as Ti3+:sapphire and Mn6+-doped sulfates, tungstates and molybdates as spatially coherent, spectrally broadband light sources for interferometric applications such as optical low-coherence reflectometry (OLCR) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Currently, this collaboration is extended to the investigation of suitable nano-structuring methods of such materials for photonic band-gap waveguides. Within the international collaboration established with URV and MBI in 2002, Yb3+-doped double tungstates have been grown as thin films and investigated optically for future laser applications. More information on the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology can be found on: http://ioa.epfl.ch For information on the laboratory of EPFL look at: http://apl.epfl.ch