Photos: Inside IBM's Zurich research lab

This is the entrance to the IBM Research laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland, which will host a double celebration this summer.

The lab, founded 50 years ago, was IBM's first research facility outside the US. And 25 years ago the lab made its most famous research breakthrough: the scanning tunnelling microscope, which provided the foundation for understanding and working with nanoscale technology.

That breakthrough brought a Nobel prize in physics in 1986 for Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. Only a year later the lab hit the research jackpot again when Georg Bednorz and Alex Mueller scooped the same prize for their work on high-temperature superconductivity.

Two Nobels in two years is some achievement, especially as IBM Research as a whole has only won a total of three.

To mark the anniversary, ZDNet UK visited the Zurich lab to see some of its current research.

Despite its pedigree, IBM Zurich is quite small. There are 240 employees and 50 pre-doctoral and 30 post-doctoral students. IBM Research as a whole has 3,500 employees in eight laboratories around the world -- three in the US, including Thomas Watson, which is the largest.

The work of the lab in Zurich varies widely, from advanced silicon research (some of the most cutting-edge in the world) to helping IBM's consulting arm win new business.

"IBM's research division is the largest private research organisation in the world," said Dr Karin Vey, communications manager for the Zurich lab.