History / Company Overview

Menlo Systems GmbH is a spin-off from the renowned Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ, Garching, Germany). Professor T.W. Hänsch, director of the institute, and his coworkers have pioneered a revolutionary and simple technique for measuring the frequency of light. This invention has been named "...the biggest advance in precision electromagnetic measurements since people began to measure laser frequencies in the seventies...".

This technique has been the starting point for the original foundation of Menlo Systems GmbH in July 2001 by Prof. T.W. Hänsch, Dr. Ronald Holzwarth and Dr. Michael Mei. The first company product is a very high accuracy optical frequency synthesizer based on the legendary frequency chain (http://www.mpq.mpg.de/~haensch/chain/chain.html) at the Max-Planck-Institute. With the original frequency chain numerous world records in precision measurements have been set (e.g., determination of the Rydberg constant).

In December 2001 Alex Cable and Dr. Bruno Gross have joined the founding team. Today, the company's objective is to develop techniques and applications that exploit the powerful tool of optical frequency measurement both for research and for industry applications.