Helmholtz Institute Jena

Name

Helmholtz Institute Jena

Legal name

GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Niederlassung Helmholtz-Institut Jena

Website

https://hi-jena.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Research Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) (541715), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Optical Instruments & Lenses (3827), Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Optoelectronic Emitters (LED/Laser/VCSEL) (HDAHALAL)

Keywords

• High-power laser research
• Particle accelerator facilities
• Laser-plasma physics
• Atomic physics research
• Quantum electrodynamics

Headquarters

HQ city

Jena

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Government Research Funding: Core funding from Helmholtz Association and German federal ministries (BMBF) for fundamental research activities. Additionally funded through third-party projects from various German research funding bodies.
2. Third-Party Funded Research Projects: Externally funded research projects through German Research Foundation (DFG), European Research Council, Thuringian Ministry for Economy, Labour, and Technology (TMWAT), and other funding agencies.

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Helmholtz Institute Jena is a publicly funded scientific research institute conducting fundamental and applied research using high-power laser systems (POLARIS, JETI200, JETI40) and particle accelerator facilities (ESR, CRYRING@ESR, HITRAP). It performs experiments in laser-plasma physics, laser-induced particle acceleration, photon and particle spectroscopy, and theoretical quantum field theory, while training doctoral researchers through the Research School of Advanced Photon Science (RS-APS).

Product overview

Helmholtz Institute Jena operates as a research institute focused on fundamental and applied research using high-power lasers and particle accelerator facilities. The institute's portfolio includes three main laser systems (POLARIS, JETI200, and JETI40) for high-intensity laser experiments, and external particle accelerator facilities (ESR Storage Ring, HITRAP, and CRYRING@ESR) for ion storage and spectroscopy. The institute conducts research across four main areas: high-power laser development, laser-induced particle acceleration, photon and particle spectroscopy, and theoretical physics. The Research School of Advanced Photon Science (RS-APS) provides graduate education. The facilities contribute to GSI/FAIR and DESY (FLASH) as well as XFEL research objectives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• POLARIS Laser System World's only fully diode-pumped laser system generating pulses with a peak power of 200 TW. Uses chirped pulse amplification with five power amplifiers, generating more than 17 J within a pulse duration below 100 fs on target, achieving intensities exceeding 10^21 W/cm².
• JETI200 Laser System Commercial Ti:sapphire laser with peak power exceeding 200 TW. Delivers on-target energy of 4 J with 17 fs pulse duration, achieving intensities greater than 10^21 W/cm² using double CPA amplification scheme with cross-wave polarization filtering.
• JETI40 Laser System Semicommercial high-intensity laser system providing up to 40 TW peak power with 1.5 Joule final energy at 10 Hz repetition rate and 25 fs minimum pulse duration, achieving peak intensities up to 10^20 W/cm².
• ESR Storage Ring Experimental storage ring at GSI covering a working range from helium (Z=2) to uranium (Z=92) with ion velocities between 10% and 90% of the speed of light. Circumference of 108.36 m, capable of storing uranium ions (U92+) at 560 MeV/u energy.
• CRYRING@ESR First major facility of the FAIR accelerator complex, designed to store and cool heavy highly charged ions in an energy range of 10 MeV/u down to a few 100 keV/u. Features excellent vacuum conditions achieving ion beam lifetimes of several seconds to minutes, with a high-performance electron cooler and gas jet target.
• HITRAP Facility Ion trap facility for capturing and cooling highly charged ions (HCI) produced at the GSI-accelerator complex. Provides bare nuclei (up to uranium U92+), hydrogen-like ions, and few-electron systems at low temperatures for atomic physics studies.
• Research School of Advanced Photon Science (RS-APS) Structured PhD training program offering lectures, research projects, lecture weeks, and thesis supervision for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in advanced photon science. Over 100 theses completed since 2010.

Quantifiable outcome

• First direct visualization of Coulomb field of relativistic electron bunches on sub-picosecond timescales
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• GSI Helmholtzzentrum für SchwerionenforschungcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent institute and main collaborator. HI-Jena is a branch office of GSI located on the campus of FSU Jena. GSI provides the ion accelerator facilities (ESR, CRYRING, HITRAP) that complement the institute's laser research programs. Joint contributions to FAIR project goals.
• Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (FSU Jena)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost institution providing campus facilities. Faculty of Physics and Astronomy contributes expertise in high-power laser development and precision X-ray spectroscopy. Long-standing collaboration in novel laser systems development.
• DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHelmholtz center partner contributing to FLASH and XFEL facilities. HI-Jena contributes to DESY's photon science goals, particularly related to X-ray free-electron laser research and development.
• HZDR (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHelmholtz center partner in the research network. Collaborates on matters related to matter research and shared facilities within the Helmholtz Association.
• FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational accelerator center being established at GSI site in Darmstadt. HI-Jena contributes to FAIR experiments using laser facilities combined with ion accelerator infrastructure. CRYRING is the first major facility of FAIR.
• European XFELmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch facility in Hamburg metropolitan area generating extreme intensity X-ray laser pulses. HI-Jena contributes to XFEL science programs and benefits from access to XFEL facilities for complementary experiments.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Broad incumbents

• European XFEL: International X-ray free-electron laser facility in Hamburg. HI Jena is a listed partner; both conduct research using extreme-intensity photon beams and share HIBEF user infrastructure, making it thematically and operationally adjacent.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory: US national laboratory operating LCLS, the world's first hard X-ray free-electron laser. Comparable as a large-scale accelerator-and-photon-science user facility with overlapping themes in ultrafast science, photon spectroscopy, and QED research.
• DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron): Helmholtz partner and host of FLASH and a major contributor to European XFEL. Comparable as a large-scale photon science and particle accelerator center whose research scope overlaps with HI Jena's laser-driven photon and particle spectroscopy programs.

Direct peers

• LULI (Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses): French national high-intensity laser user facility at École Polytechnique. Comparable as a peer high-intensity laser laboratory serving fundamental physics, laser-plasma, and high-energy-density science.
• ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) Beamlines: Czech-hosted pan-European user facility operating multiple petawatt-class lasers for laser-plasma acceleration, QED, and high-energy-density research. The closest direct global peer in mission and capability to HI Jena's high-intensity laser research program.
• GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung: Parent organization of HI Jena and operator of the ESR, CRYRING@ESR, and HITRAP facilities. Directly comparable because it operates the heavy-ion accelerator infrastructure that HI Jena's laser programs couple to, and shares the Helmholtz Association funding framework.
• Central Laser Facility (CLF), STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: UK national user facility operating Vulcan, Gemini, and other petawatt/tawatt-class lasers. Directly comparable as a publicly funded user facility serving the same international high-intensity laser research community.
• Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR): Helmholtz partner with the HIBEF (High Energy Density generated by Extreme Lasers) user consortium at the European XFEL. Directly comparable because it pairs high-intensity laser systems with accelerator-based photon and ion sources for high-energy-density and atomic physics research.
• FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research): International accelerator facility under construction at GSI, of which CRYRING@ESR (operated with HI Jena) is the first major facility. Comparable as the next-generation heavy-ion research infrastructure to which HI Jena's experimental programs are coupled.

Emerging players

• Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ): German research institute conducting attosecond and high-field physics with the ATLAS and LUXE programs. Comparable as a peer German research organization with overlapping interests in strong-field QED and high-intensity laser physics, with more limited petawatt infrastructure than HI Jena.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/helmholtz-institute-jena

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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