The sponsoring association Institut für Nanophotonik Göttingen was founded in 1987 in the form of a registered association. It has since then run the institute (IFNANO) as a non-profit making special-purpose enterprise, being institutionally supported by the State of Lower Saxony. 

The statutory purpose “Promotion of Optical Technologies” is successfully fulfilled through applied basic research and knowledge transfer between research institutions and industry through research assignments, consultancy, scientific expertise, training and services and is documented by a large number of publications.

The departments of the IFNANO are:

• Optics / Short Wavelengths
• Optical Nanoscopy
• Photonic Sensor Technology
• Short Pulses / Nanostructures.

With their research projects and developments in various fields of physics, the LLG divisions have gained worldwide acceptance. This acceptance is expressed by a multitude of international co-operations and development orders by research institutions, small businesses and affiliated groups from most important industrial locations of the world. It also generates synergies, moreover, between the University, the institutes of the Max Planck Society and the industry of precision mechanics and optics in the region.

The research activities range from the development of non-contacting laser measurement engineering, the manufacturing of new products and product processing by using lasers, the development of new laser systems to applications in medical technology and the live sciences. Selected research and development results are marketed or distributed by various companies under licence. Further developments made within these companies flow back to IFNANO, thus pushing the research ahead in large steps. This also leads to the development of new fields of action for the researchers.