It was founded on July 1, 1977 as a premier laser institute, which was not a part of a university.
The institute was founded by Werner Jüptner and Gerd Sepold.
The institute focuses its research in the areas of Material Processing and Opto-electronic Systems and Optical Metrology.
The institute is located in the University of Bremen's campus.
It can be conveniently reached via the Straßenbahn[2] number 6, alighting at the stop named 'Klagenfurter Straße'.