Min Qiu
Westlake University, China
IEEE Fellow, Optica Fellow, SPIE Fellow, COS Fellow, CSOE Fellow, CIE Fellow

Prof.Min Qiu is the Guoqiang Chair Professor of Optical Engineering and Vice President at Westlake University, where he also serves as the Dean of School of Engineering and the Director of Westlake Institute for Optoelectronics. He is a Member of Academia Europaea, a Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. He is also a Fellow of several prestigious professional societies, including:IEEE Fellow (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)，Optica Fellow(formerly OSA, The Optical Society of America)，SPIE Fellow (International Society for Optical Engineering)，COS Fellow(Chinese Optical Society)，CSOE Fellow (Chinese Society of Optical Engineering) and CIE Fellow(Chinese Institute of Electronics). Prof. Qiu actively contributes to the academic community through leadership roles, serving as a Standing Council Member of the Chinese Society of Optical Engineering (CSOE), Deputy Director of both the Micro- and Nano-Optics Committees of CSOE and the Chinese Optical Society (COS), as well as Vice President of the Zhejiang Optical Society and the Zhejiang Institute of Electronics.

He received his Bachelor of Science and his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics from Zhejiang University in 1995 and 1999, respectively. He then earned a Ph.D. in Electromagnetic Theory from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden in 2001. He was appointed as Assistant Professor at KTH in the same year, promoted to Associate Professor in 2005, and became a full professor in photonics in 2009. His research has been supported by prestigious grants, including the "Future Research Leader" program from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and the Senior Researcher Specialized Grant from the Swedish Research Council. In 2010, he joined the College of Optical Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University, where he also served as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation. In 2018, he joined Westlake University.

Speech Title: Silicon Carbide Optoelectronic and Photonic Device Integration

Abstract: Silicon Carbide (SiC), as a third-generation semiconductor material, emerges as an ideal platform for advancing nanophotonic technologies due to its high refractive index, low optical loss, compatibility with integrated circuit processes, and high thermal conductivity.

This talk presents key innovations in SiC photonics. First, to overcome the critical issue of focal shift in high-power laser processing caused by thermal absorption in traditional objective lenses, we designed and fabricated a 4H-SiC metalens that rivals commercial objectives. Its outstanding thermal management enables stable, near-diffraction-limit focusing performance during extended operation. Second, addressing challenges in metalens design such as the sensitivity and unpredictability of in-plane topology optimization algorithms, limitations in degrees of freedom, and the computational burden of full-wave simulations, we utilized an inverse design optimization algorithm to develop a metalens with both high numerical aperture (NA) and achromatic characteristics.

Furthermore, to solve the problems inherent in conventional full-color display diffractive waveguide AR glasses, specifically their bulk and weight from multi-layer waveguides, rainbow artifacts induced by ambient light, and thermal management challenges in micro-optical engines, we designed and mass-produced an ultra-lightweight, ultra-thin SiC AR waveguide. This device employs a single-layer waveguide to achieve full-color display and a large field of view (FoV), while effectively suppressing rainbow artifacts.

These studies provide innovative solutions for designing ultra-compact optical devices and are poised to accelerate the development and practical application of high-performance SiC nanophotonic devices.

Philip Russell
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
OSA Fellow

Philip Russell is Director at the Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany and holds the Krupp Chair in Experimental Physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He obtained his M.A. (1976) and D.Phil. (1979) degrees at the University of Oxford and subsequently worked in research laboratories and universities in France, Germany and the USA. His research interests range from the behaviour of light in periodically structured materials to nonlinear optics, waveguides, optical fibres and their applications. He has over 600 publications and is co-inventor on 37 disclosures or patents covering many aspects of photonics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Optical Society of America (OSA) and has won several international awards for his research including the 2005 Körber Prize for European Science, the 2005 Thomas Young Prize of the Institute for Physics (UK) and the 2000 OSA Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize. He was a Director-At-Large of the Optical Society of America 2007-2009 and from 2005 to 2006 he was an IEEE-LEOS Distinguished Lecturer and the recipient of a Royal Society/Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Speech Title:Three Decades Riding the Photonic Crystal Fibre Wave

Abstract: In 1991 I proposed that a hair-thin glass fibre perforated along its length with an array of microscopic hollow channels might guide light in novel ways. In such a "photonic crystal fibre" (PCF) the hollow channels would strongly scatter light and thus could be used to "corral" it within a central hollow or solid core by strong two-dimensional Bragg scattering. Initially it was far from clear that such an intricate microstructure could ever be made, since nothing comparable had previously been attempted. Nevertheless, after several years of trying different approaches, the first light-guiding PCF emerged from the drawing tower in late 1995, ushering in a new age of fibre optics. By offering enhanced control over the propagation of guided light, PCF has led to a whole series of scientific and technical breakthroughs. A few examples: small-solid-core PCF is used to transform infrared laser pulses into white light millions of times brighter than the sun – revolutionary new light sources with a multitude of applications; hollow core PCFs filled with gas are used to compress infrared laser pulses to single-cycle durations, thus underpinning a new family of bright sources of wavelength-tuneable ultraviolet light; and “single-ring” hollow-core PCF is delivering transmission losses that are lower than the best traditional fibres, with revolutionary implications for optical telecommunications. During the lecture I will look back over the last three decades, and discuss how some of the scientific discoveries made possible by PCF have evolved into real-world applications.

Tomasz R. Wolinski
Warsaw Univ. of Technology, Poland
SPIE Fellow

Tomasz R. Woliński received his Ph.D. in Physics in 1985 and D.Sc. in Physics Optics in 1995. He has been Professor of Physics since 2002 and Head of Photonics Technologies Priority Research Area at Warsaw University of Technology since 2020. He has co-authored over 380 journal and conference papers (h=26), 7 patents (USA, Canada, Poland), 7 review chapters (Progress in Optics, Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering, Wiley, Springer, Woodhead Publishing); Fellow of SPIE (2004), Senior Member of Optica (2022), member of the Int. Union of Pure and Applied Physics: Laser Physics and Photonics (2025); Photonics Society of Poland President since its inception in 2008 and Photonics Letters of Poland publisher since 2009; Laureate of the Foundation for Polish Science MASTER Program in the area of Photonic Liquid Crystals Fibers (2009). His current research interests include THz liquid crystals photonics, photonic (liquid crystals) fibers and nanostructures, polarization phenomena in optical fibers, fiber based optofluidics, and optical fiber sensors and systems.

Speech Title: Tunable Photonic Fiber Microstructures Enhanced by Modified Liquid Crystals

Abstract: Optical properties of the selected tunable photonic microstructures doped with modified liquid crystal materials are discussed. Starting from early works on classical optical fibers with liquid crystals, the latest achievements in the field of liquid crystal-infiltrated photonic crystal fibers modified by using gold nanoparticles are presented. It has been demonstrated that photonic liquid crystal microstructures doped with gold nanoparticles can significantly lower threshold voltage and speed up response times to a few milliseconds by interaction of gold nanoparticles with liquid crystals in tunable photonic crystal fiber microstructures, providing promising optical materials for realizing electro-optical modulation and switching, as well as tunable filter applications and sensing capabilities. Additionally, dual-refractive-index photonic crystal waveguides fabricated by combining two-photon polymerization with a specially modified 3D nanoprinting (Nanoscribe GT2 printer) enable the fabrication of photonic crystal fiber segments with a complex three-dimensional refractive index distribution and consequently reciprocal transitions between index guiding and photonic bandgap guiding.