Center of photonics for information technology, Institut Foton is a joint laboratory of CNRS, University of Rennes 1 (including ENSSAT and Lannion IUT) and INSA Rennes.
Foton is located over two sites with about 120 employees, including 75 permanent staff. It is one of the first public research forces in France in its field, producing over 100 scientific papers per year.
The specificity of Foton is to gather three teams (« DOP », « OHM », and « SP ») and three research platforms (« CCLO », « NanoRennes », and « PERSYST ») addressing a wide range of topics within the broad area of photonics, a Key-Enabling-Technology.
The research topics, which were primarily concerned with optical communications, are now covering applications as distinct as defense, life sciences, industry, or energy.
The facilities of the research platforms are exploited to grow novel materials (e.g. III-V semiconductors), fabricate innovative devices (e.g. active semiconductor components, optical waveguides with advanced functional materials) and demonstrate system functionalities (such as those employed in optical transmissions, from advanced optical modulations to silicon photonic transmitters). Typical areas of investigation by the three research teams include lasers, microwave, millimetre and terahertz optics, innovative materials for photonics, optical sensors, coherent imaging and advanced concepts for photovoltaics.
Institut Foton is grateful to FEDER, État Français and Région Bretagne for their participation, through the CPER “Sophie-Photonique”, in funding part of the equipment available in the lab