Invited Speakers

S1. Nanophotonic Materials and Devices

Joel Yang

Joel Yang

Professor, Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
Title:

3D Printing With Light For Light

Joel Yang received his Master of Science (2005) and PhD (2009) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a Professor and Associate Head in the Engineering Product Development at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). He is recognized for pioneering work in plasmonic color printing, achieving record-level printing resolution at 100,000 dpi and credited for the widely-used “salty-developer” to improve the resolution of electron beam lithography. His research interests include Structural color printing, Nanoplasmonics, 2D and 3D printed nano optical design elements (NODE), and sub-10-nm resolution lithography. He is Fellow of Optica, NRF Investigator (class of 2020), and A*STAR Investigator (2010).

3D printing is a cost-effective and convenient means to produce prototypes and test out designs. In our lab, we use high-resolution 3D printers based on two-photon polymerization lithography (TPL) with 780 nm wavelength femtosecond lasers to quickly realize nanoscale structures that are in turn designed to control light. The use of TPL, an additive manufacturing process with sub-micron print resolutions, to produce structures for optical effect is a relatively new endeavor [1].

We demonstrated the printing of structural colors, generated from nanoscale features of dielectric materials. We have previously shown the fabrication of nanopillars, gratings, mesh-like, and wood-pile photonic crystal structures that appear colorful under white-light illumination. The ability to achieve a wide range of colors by simply tuning geometric properties opens fascinating opportunities to the nanoengineer or nanoscientist to design colors using material properties, and nanostructure geometry as input parameters. This physical approach differs from the chemical approach for synthesizing pigments and dyes, where colors arise due to optical absorption.

We now demonstrate the integration of these structural colors with other micro-optical elements, such as microlenses and spiral phase plates. Equipped with TPL as a nanoscale 3D printer, structural color geometries are conveniently integrated in a single print run with other user-defined optics. Doing so enables one to produce structured light from incoherent light sources, holographic color prints, and control of the light-field for 3D representation. We will discuss the use of structural colors combined with micro-optics for enhanced information content and optical security [2].

    References
  • Hao Wang, et al. “Two-Photon Polymerization Lithography for Optics and Photonics: Fundamentals, Materials, Technologies, and Applications”, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2214211 (2023)
  • Hongtao Wang, et al. “Coloured vortex beams with incoherent white light illumination”, Nature Nanotechnology 18, 264-272 (2023)
Takuo Tanaka

田中拓男 Takuo Tanaka

Professor, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Japan
Title:

Metasurfaces for sensing applications

Takuo Tanaka is a chief scientist of RIKEN. He received his PhD degree in 1996 from Osaka University. After that, he joined faculty of Engineering Science, Osaka University as an assistant professor. In 2003, he moved to RIKEN as a research scientist in Nanophotonics Laboratory. He was promoted to associate chief scientist in 2008 and to chief scientist in 2017. Now he is heading another research lab. “Innovative photon manipulation research team” in RIKEN as a team leader. In addition, he was appointed as a visiting professor in Saitama university from 2010, as an adjunct professor in Gakushuin university from 2012, as a visiting professor in national Tsing Hua university from 2017, as a specially appointed professor in Tokushima university from 2019, and as a visiting professor in the university of the Philippines Diliman from 2019.

His research background is three-dimensional microscopy such as confocal microscopy and two-photon microscopy. Recently, his research fields are gradually shifted to nanophotonics, plasmonics, and metamaterials with developing many new nanofabrication techniques. He has also experimental and theoretical experiences about high precision optical measurements and spectroscopy, and numerical computation of the interaction of light with structured materials. Tanaka is elected as a fellow of JSAP.

Highly sensitive sensing techniques for biological and chemical materials are becoming increasingly essential in our daily lives. Recently, metasurfaces have been employed to enhance the sensitivity of infrared (IR) spectroscopy.

We have applied a metasurface absorber, consisting of a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure, to background-suppressed IR spectroscopy for detecting organic molecules. Due to plasmonic enhancement and resonant coupling between excited plasmons and molecules, molecular sensitivity at the atto-molar level has been achieved.

For liquid samples, we proposed a 3D metamaterial device incorporating nanofluidics to precisely guide target molecules into the hot spot region of the metasurface, resulting in ultra-high sensitivity for IR absorption detection. The device structure comprises a metal square-disk array and a metal mirror, separated by a nanofluidic channel. Using this device, sensitivity at a molecular density of approximately 10-4 molecules/Å2 was achieved.

The sensitivity also depends on the density of hot spots within the metasurface. To increase the density of these hot spots, we designed and fabricated a vertically aligned MIM (v-MIM) structure with a nano-gap of 25 nm. This metasurface device was applied to the detection of carbon dioxide and butane, with designed resonances at 4033 cm-1 and 2945 cm-1, corresponding to the C=O and -CH2 vibrational modes, respectively. Due to its compact size, the v-MIM structure enables increased integration density, allowing the detection of a 20 ppm concentration with suppressed background noise and high selectivity in the mid-infrared region.

Additionally, we introduce a metasurface-based immunochromatography device for biomolecular sensing.

Yao-Wei Huang

黃耀緯 Yao-Wei Huang

Assistant Professor, Department of Photonics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Title:

Metasurface-based depth sensing and topology optimized high-Q metasurfaces

Dr. Yao-Wei Huang is an Assistant Professor of Photonics and Yushan Young Scholar at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU). He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Dr. Huang has extensive research experience from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Caltech, and NUS. His expertise spans nanophotonics, physics, materials science, nanofabrication, and nanotechnology, and he earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from National Taiwan University.

Dr. Huang's research focuses on nanophotonics, metasurfaces, inverse design, nonlocal effects, structured light, dispersion engineering, and computational visual sensing, with innovative applications in extended reality and LiDAR. He has authored and co-authored over 60 scientific publications, proceedings, and patents, including articles in Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the IEEE, Science Advances, Nano Letters, etc. His contributions to the field have been recognized with awards such as the Google Gift, and his research aims to advance metasurface technologies for the betterment of human well-being.

In this invited talk, I will present our recent developments and applications of dielectric metasurfaces in depth sensing, facial recognition, and topology-optimized high-Q metasurfaces. In the first part, we demonstrate a commercially compatible metasurface-based dot projector that integrates a metasurface hologram with photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL). Compared to conventional dot projectors, our approach achieves a 233-fold reduction in area, a 10.8-fold decrease in power consumption, a 1.43-fold increase in the number of near-infrared dots, and a twofold expansion in field-of-view (FOV). In the second part, we introduce a novel topology-optimized nonlocal metasurface that operates simultaneously at red, yellow, green, and blue wavelengths. Unlike local metasurfaces with broadband and broad-angle responses, nonlocal metasurfaces, exemplified by resonant waveguide gratings (RWGs), spatially and angularly configure optical wavefronts through narrow-band resonant modes. Our metasurface RWG (MRWG), designed using advanced efficiency techniques compared to forward-designed RWGs, achieves experimental efficiencies of up to 59%, a 15.7-fold improvement. It also demonstrates color selectivity, producing vivid colors at four narrow-band wavelengths with precise narrow-angle responses, and achieves a Q-factor of 93.
Kuo-Ping Chen

陳國平 Kuo-Ping Chen

Professor, Institute of Photonics Technologies, National Tsing Hua University
Title:

Enhancing Light-Matter Interactions in 2D Materials with Nanophotonics

Kuo-Ping Chen is a professor of the Institute of Photonics Technologies, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU). He earned the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University in 2011. He has worked in Intel Corp. (2011-2012) at Portland to developing the advanced lithography technology. Kuo-Ping joined National Chiao Tung University in 2012 and moved to NTHU in 2022. Kuo-Ping's research interests are in nanophotonics and metamaterials, which include nanofabrication, plasmonics, bio-sensor, nanoantennas, and metasurfaces. He was awarded with the “outstanding young scholar program” from MOST in 2020. He was also awarded the MOST Ta-You Wu Memorial Award and 19th Y. Z. Hsu Scientific Paper Award in 2021.
In this presentation, recent progress in the light-matters interactions with 2D materials and nanophotonic devices, including exciton-polaritons couplings and Tamm plasmon polariton photoenergy conversion will also be introduced. In addition, a polarization-actuated 2D materials photodetector was demonstrated via surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) detection. The designed nano-structure guides the SPPs to the graphene photodetector due to local carriers heating. The excited hot carriers were separated and driven via external and internal electric fields generating a photocurrent.
Kuniaki Konishi

小西邦昭 Kuniaki Konishi

Associate Professor, Institute for Photon Science and Technology, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan
Title:

Lightwave control using free-standing dielectric nanomembrane structures

Kuniaki Konishi received his B.S. (2001), M.S. (2003), and Ph.D. (2008) degrees from the Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo. From 2003 to 2005, he worked as a researcher at NTT Photonics Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. From 2008 to 2014, he was a Project Assistant Professor at the Photon Science Center, University of Tokyo. From 2014 to 2021, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Photon Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo. Since 2021, he has been an Associate Professor at that institute. His main research interests are metamaterials, laser processing, and terahertz spectroscopy.
Metasurfaces are usually fabricated on substrates, but the effect of the substrate's refractive index and absorption can degrade their performance. We are developing a technique to fabricate nanostructures on dielectric free-standing membranes (nanomembranes) that do not have a substrate to provide a new platform for optical control. In this presentation, I will describe our method of fabricating photonic membrane structures and present examples of research into membrane-based optical control.
Ya-Lun Ho

何亜倫 Ya-Lun Ho

Senior Researcher, Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
Title:

Membrane Nanophotonic Platform for Enhancing Light-Matter Coupling in 2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Ya-Lun Ho received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from National Taiwan University in 2009 and 2010, respectively, and his Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo in 2015. From 2014 to 2017, he was a JSPS Research Fellow, followed by his role as an Assistant Professor at The University of Tokyo from 2017 to 2022. Since July 2023, he has been a Senior Researcher at the Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).

Ya-Lun Ho's research focuses on nanophotonics and plasmonics based on 2D and low-dimensional materials, with a current emphasis on atomic-layer and membrane metasurfaces. His expertise lies in the design and fabrication of advanced nanophotonic platforms, optimized for a diverse array of photonic and optoelectronic applications.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are at the forefront of nanophotonics due to their remarkable optical properties. Their 2D structure enables efficient light absorption and emission, making them promising candidates for next-generation nanophotonic and quantum devices. However, their atomic thinness limits light-matter interaction. The integration of TMDC monolayers with photonic structures, particularly nanophotonic platforms supporting bound states in the continuum (BICs), enhances light-matter coupling, resulting in high-quality-factor (Q-factor) spontaneous emission. The freestanding finite-area membrane nanophotonic platform minimizes radiation loss and amplifies light-matter interaction across a micrometer-scale area while maintaining a high Q-factor. This membrane nanophotonic platform opens new possibilities for developing 2D material-based nanophotonic devices.
Jer-Shing Huang

黃哲勳 Jer-Shing Huang

Professor, Research Department of Nanooptics, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Germany
Title:

Substrate Effect on the Whispering-Gallery Modes in π-Conjugated Polymer Microspheres

Dr. Jer-Shing Huang received his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan University in 2004. He then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan (2004-2006 at IAMS) and Würzburg University in Germany (2007-2010 at Experimental Physics V). From 2010 to 2016, Dr. Huang was an assistant and associate professor at the Department of Chemistry at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. Since November 2016, Dr. Huang has been the head of the Research Department of Nanooptics at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Jena, Germany. Currently, Dr. Huang serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the journal OPTIK (Elsevier), and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Photonics. His research focuses on the control and enhancement of light-matter interactions at nanoscale using rationally designed nanostructures. Specific topics include optical nanocircuits, nanoantennas, metasurfaces, chiral sensing and imaging, optical trapping, and fluorescent polymer microresonators.
This work theoretically and experimentally investigates the impact of plasmonic and dielectric substrates on the whispering-gallery modes in π-conjugated polymer microspheres. Substrate-dependent quenching and spectral shift of the WGM peaks have been observed. Dielectric substrate quenches the WGMs by frustrated total internal reflection, whereas plasmonic substrate reduces the intensity of WGMs by polarization-dependent excitation of surface plasmons. As for the spectral shift, the trend can be qualitatively explained by the modification of the effective cavity size due to Goos-Hänchen effect around the polymer-substrate contact point.

S2. Optical Waveguides and Communications

Christina Lim

Christina Lim

Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Title:

Optical Wireless Convergence: Next-Generation Optical Crosshaul Networking

Christina Lim is a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is also the Associate Dean of Research of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology and the Research Group Leader for the Photonics and Electronics Research Group in the Department. Her research interests include fibre-wireless access technology, microwave photonics, optical network architectures, optical wireless and free-space optics communications. She has co-authored more than 300 papers in leading journals and conferences. She was an elected member of the IEEE Photonics Society Board of Governors between 2015-2017. She is an IEEE and Optica (previously OSA) Fellow. Currently she serves as the VP of the IEEE Photonics Society Conference Council and a Deputy Editor for IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology.
This paper review some of the work we have done in the area of optical wireless convergence targeted towards crosshaul architecture implementation and orchestration for seamless integration with future wireless communication networks.
Jiun-Yu Sung

宋峻宇 Jiun-Yu Sung

Professor, Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Title:

Overviews of Indoor Infrared Optical Wireless Communications (IR-OWC)

Jiun-Yu Sung is currently an associate professor in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and Graduate Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
Upgraded data transmission speed is demanded for every generation of the wireless communication systems. Infrared optical wireless communications (IR-OWC) has abundant spectrum and can easily reuse the mature fiber-optic communication eco-systems; therefore, is greatly considered for the ultrahigh-speed applications. Besides data rate, a practical IR-OWC system also requires efficient beam-steering and user position localization. In this paper, overviews for our recent works and publications from some renowned groups will be performed.
Chun-Wei Chen

Chun-Wei Chen

Postdoctoral Scholar, Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, USA
Title:

Taming the beasts: wavefront shaping to conquer nonlinear effects in multimode fiber amplifiers

Chun-Wei (Joe) Chen is a postdoctoral scholar in Prof. Michel Digonnet’s group at Stanford University. He earned his PhD from Penn State University under the guidance of Prof. Iam Choon Khoo and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. Hui Cao at Yale University before joining Stanford. His work centers on overcoming challenges posed by nonlinear optical effects in high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers, using techniques such as anti-Stokes-fluorescence cooling and wavefront shaping.
Single-frequency fiber amplifiers are crucial for applications demanding both high average power and beam quality, e.g., gravitational-wave detection and coherent LiDAR. However, achieving both simultaneously is challenging because high-power operation requires a large fiber core to mitigate nonlinear effects, but a large core typically supports multiple modes, leading to a speckled output beam. Consequently, the power scaling of narrowband fiber amplifiers is often limited by detrimental effects such as stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and transverse mode instability (TMI). We demonstrate with experiments, simulations, and theoretical analysis that these nonlinear effects can be significantly suppressed by exciting many modes in a single-frequency fiber amplifier, enabling much higher output power (several hundred watts or more). Simultaneously, we optimize the input seed wavefront to achieve a desired beam shape (such as a single diffraction-limited spot) at the amplifier's output. With wavefront shaping, multimode fiber amplifiers also provide an excellent platform for exploring multi-scaled nonlinear physics in complex media.

S3. Quantum Photonics and Laser Technology

OU Zheyu Jeff

區澤宇 OU Zheyu Jeff

Professor, Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong
Title:

Interferometry in the quantum age

Professor Ou obtained his BS in 1984 from Peking University and Ph.D. in 1990 from University of Rochester. He is now a Chair Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. Professor Ou is an expert in quantum optics, especially in quantum interference, for which he is the co-inventor of the well-known Hong-Ou-Mandel interferometer. He pioneered the field of multi-photon interference, which he summarized in the monograph “Quantum Multi-Photon Interference” published by Springer in 2007. Professor Ou's current research focuses on quantum metrology, quantum sensing, quantum state engineering, quantum information and communication, and more fundamental quantum measurement and quantum coherence problems. Professor Ou an Associate Editor of Optica Quantum, and is a fellow of American Physical Society and of Optica (formerly Optical Society of America).
Interferometry has been widely used in sensing application for precision measurement of a variety of physical quantities. However, the hardware structure and the measurement technique have not changed ever since its invention about one hundred years ago, even though quantum states are employed to reduce the intrinsic quantum noise in the interferometers. This has limited the applicable range of the traditional interferometric technique. In this presentation, we will introduce some new quantum approaches to interferometry. Among them are hardware changes and quantum measurement techniques. We will review a number of quantum advantages over traditional methods. The one that breaks the limitation of finite coherence time in traditional interferometry can broaden the applicable range of interferometric techniques and has potential applications in long-baseline high resolution astronomy and LIDAR technique.
Wenchang Yeh

葉文昌 Wenchang Yeh

Professor, Shimane University, Japan
Title:

Growth of crystal orientation controlled single crystal stripes in Si/Ge thin film on SiO2 for Si photonics

He is a Professor in the Department of Applied Physics, University of Shimane, Japan. He was a professor in the department of electronics, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, from 2002 to 2009. He received his Ph.D. degree in engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 2000. His current research interests are formation of single crystal semiconductor thin film on SiO2 and its application to 3D-LSIs.

Formation of single crystal film on SiO2 is a bottleneck technology for future 3D-LSI or Si photonics. I will introduce our original technique for formation of semi-infinite long (001) textured Si single crystal stripes with width of ~8µm in a 60nm-thick Si/Ge films. The stripes can be thickened to 0.5 µm for formation of NIR waveguide. Transmission loss of NIR light can be much lower than that of poly-Si films since there is no energy states originated from grain boundaries. MOSFETs fabricated on the 60nm-tick stripes shows characteristics and deviations comparable to that of FD-SOI-MOSFETs.

Yu-Chen Chen

陳俞辰 Yu-Chen Chen

Assistant Research Fellow, Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica
Title:

Engineering and characterizing single spin defects in wide bandgap materials

Yu-Chen Chen is an Assistant Research Fellow in the Research Center for Applied Sciences (RCAS) at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Before joining Academia Sinica, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 3rd Physics Institute at University of Stuttgart, Germany for 2 and half years. Then he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Research Center for Applied Sciences (RCAS) at Academia Sinica for one year. He received his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Materials at University of Oxford in 2018, his B. S. and M. S. in Physics from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan in 2009 and 2011, respectively. His research interests focus on the single spin defects in wide bandgap materials for quantum applications.

In these two decays, not just scientists devote to quantum technologies research, but also many countries have successively executed national quantum technologies programmes. Among all quantum technologies candidate systems, optically active spin defects in wide bandgap materials, such as diamond and silicon carbide (SiC), show as promising candidates for many quantum applications at room temperature. [1,2]. In order to achieve scalable devices, spatially precise generation of high-quality single colour centres on demand are essential. In this regard, ion implantation method has been used to engineer colour centres with high spatial accuracy [3,4], but comes at the expense of creating considerable residual lattice damage, which degrades their spin and optical coherence properties.

This talk will first give introduction of the single spin defect properties for quantum applications to provide broad idea of the quantum applications. In order to achieve scalable devices, spatially precise generation of high-quality single colour centres on demand is essential. We developed a method to use single, femtosecond pulses laser (λ = 790 nm, t = 250 fs) to generate an array of NV- centres in a CVD diamond. The positing accuracy of the generated NV- centres were determined to be about 200 nm in x-y plane. The T2 spin coherence times were measured up to 700 µs. Some NVs showed narrow, stable zero-phonon-line (ZPL), including a selection which are at the lifetime-limited linewidth of 13 MHz at 4 K. These indicate the laser writing method can generate the NV- centres with almost perfect spin and optical coherence properties.

I have also characterized unknown single spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride 2D materials. we have found a set of isolated optical emitters embedded in hexagonal boron nitride that exhibit optically detected magnetic resonance. We also demonstrated that one of them is single spin defect. The defect spins show an isotropic ge-factor of ~2 and zero-field splitting below 10MHz. The photokinetics of one type of the defects is compatible with ground-state electron-spin paramagnetism. We extracted spin-lattice relaxation times T1 of 13-17 μs with estimated spin coherence times T2* of around 40-60 ns. We also investigated into the spin dynamics and provided a simple model of the electronic structure.

Saulius Juodkazis

Saulius Juodkazis

Professor, Swinburne's Optical Sciences Centre, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Title:

High Intensity Laser Patterning: Nanoscale Resolution over Large Areas

Saulius Juodkazis is Professor and Deputy Director of the Optical Sciences Centre at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. In 1998, he received his PhD (cotutelle) in experimental physics and material sciences jointly from Vilnius University, Lithuania, and Lyon-I University, France.

His current interests are in the fields of light-matter interactions occurring in small space (nanoscale) and time (femtoseconds) domains. He planned, established, and directs a multi-user Nanotechnology facility at Swinburne open to the Australian National Fabrication Facility ANFF users from December 2011. His research is focused on applying principles of light-field enhancement and its spectral control for applications in micro-optics, solid-state lighting, and solar energy conversion.

SProfessor Juodkazis has contributed to the development of a three-dimensional laser printing with nano-/micro-scale precision using femtosecond laser for applications in opto-fluidic, micro-optics, optical memory, and photonic crystals. He has shown experimentally the creation of high-pressure density phases of materials using tightly focused ultra-short laser pulses. He demonstrated that nano-textured surface of Si (black-Si) has bactericidal/biocidal property and acts as “mechanical antibiotic”, which can be mass produced. This work received 2017 Eureka prize for scientific research in Australia. He is Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).

Laser inscription of structural defects in sub-surface of dielectrics and semiconductors is made with the sub-10 nm resolution and precision by direct write. Tightly-focused ultra-short ∼ 200 fs pulses create high-intensity ≥ 20 TW/cm2 when electron tunneling becomes an important contributor to ionisation. Post-exposure annealing at ∼ 800 − 1000°C temperatures partly restores the host material with fewer defects, which are well localised and can be used as optical emitters. Also, a large area patterning of Si solar cells for efficient light trapping is presented. Above the Lambertian (ray-optics) limit of light trapping can be achieved and is transferable to the solar panel ∼ 1 m2 dimensions.

S4. Information Photonics

Zhiwen Liu

Zhiwen Liu

Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Penn State University, USA
Title:

Optical processing with reconfigurable liquid crystal based scattering media

Dr. Zhiwen Liu received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2002. He joined the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. He is currently a professor of Electrical Engineering at Penn State and his research interests include optical imaging/spectroscopy, ultrafast nonlinear optics, and photonic computing.
We present the use of reconfigurable liquid crystal-based scattering media for optical processing and computing. Recently, structural nonlinearity has been shown to enable nonlinear optical processing in the linear optical regime. Here we discuss reconfigurable structural nonlinearity achieved using liquid crystal polymer composites, whose scattering characteristics can be tuned with an external field. This reconfigurability allows for the tuning and optimization of nonlinear optical processing, and can lead to ensemble photonic learning. Applications to several learning tasks, including image classficiation, will also be discussed.
Yung-Hui Li

栗永徽 Yung-Hui Li

Senior Director, AI Research Center, Hon Hai Research Institute (HHRI)
Title:

From Generative AI to Scientific Discovery: Foxconn's AI Innovation Journey and Future Vision

Dr. Yung-Hui Li is the founding director of AI Research Center of Hon Hai Research Institute, which is the core R&D center for the most critical technology of Foxconn's 3+3 transformation strategy. He received his B.S. degree from National Taiwan University in 1995, the M.S. degree from University of Pennsylvania in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree from school of computer science of Carnegie Mellon University in 2010. Before joining Foxconn, he served as a tenured professor in National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. He has been served as industry chair, publicity chair or technical program committee member in various international conference. His research team has achieved outstanding results in the field of autonomous driving, consistently ranking at the top in global autonomous driving challenges. Their accomplishments include winning the Argoverse 1 & 2 Motion Forecasting Competition (CVPR 2023, 2024), winning the Waymo Sim Agents Challenge (CVPR 2024), and securing second place in the Waymo Motion Prediction Challenge (CVPR 2024). He also has won several gold or silver medals at Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, Pittsburgh International Invention show (INPEX) and Silicon Valley International Invention Festival (SVIIF). His current research interests include Generative AI, Large Language Model, Multimodal Foundation Model and its Application in Computer Vision, Autonomous Driving, Smart Manufacturing and Biometrics. He has published over 100 papers in the fields of AI, deep learning, and machine learning, including top conferences such as CVPR, EMNLP, and AAAI, as well as top-ranking journals such as IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, and ACM Computing Surveys.

In recent years, generative AI has revolutionized various industries and research fields, marking a significant milestone in technological advancement. This keynote presentation explores Foxconn's comprehensive journey in AI development and innovation, with a particular focus on our groundbreaking achievements in generative AI applications.

The presentation begins with an overview of generative AI's fundamental concepts and its transformative impact across different sectors. We then showcase Foxconn's significant contributions to the field through our innovative solutions, including QCNet and BehaviorGPT, which demonstrate our capabilities in developing cutting-edge AI technologies for industrial applications.

Furthermore, we will unveil our strategic vision for 2025, highlighting our ambitious expansion into AI for Science. This new frontier represents a paradigm shift in scientific research, where we aim to leverage the power of generative AI to accelerate scientific discoveries, particularly in materials science.

Our vision encompasses the transformation of traditional research methodologies through the integration of advanced AI capabilities, potentially revolutionizing how we approach scientific discovery in the 21st century.

Keywords: Generative AI, Industrial AI Applications, AI for Science

Jun Tanida

谷田純 Jun Tanida

Professor, Emeritus, University of Osaka, Japan
Title:

Computational Methods for Scatter Imaging

Jun Tanida received the MEng and DEng degrees in Osaka University in 1983 and 1986, respectively. Then he joined the faculty at Osaka University, and he is a professor emeritus. He was the president of the Optical Society of Japan (OSJ) through 2017 to 2019. His research field is optical computing and computational imaging. Recently, his interests are focused on computational methods for scatter imaging and photonic neuromorphic computing.
Scatter imaging is an important field in optics, which is expected to contribute to wide range of scientific problems. Various methods have been developed for different problems with sophisticated approaches. In this talk, a framework of computational imaging, consisting of optical encoding and computational decoding, is focused on, and its effectiveness for scatter imaging is clarified. For example, application of coded aperture and machine learning enhances the performance of conventional methods. From the basic methods to recent progress, some achievements by our group are presented, and the future direction will be considered.
Vera Marinova

Vera Marinova

Professor, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Title:

Integration of functional nanomaterials toward opto-electronic and photonic devices

Vera Marinova is a full professor at the Institute of Optical Materials and Technologies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IOMT-BAS). She earned her MSc in Optics and Spectroscopy from Sofia University and completed her PhD degree at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2000. In the same year, Marinova joined the Photonics Department at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan as a post-doctoral researcher. Since 2016, she has been a visiting professor at the Electrophysics Department, NYCU, Taiwan, where she currently holds the position of Adjunct Professor. Marinova leads a research group focused on 2D materials for application in optics and photonics (liquid crystal displays, spatial light modulators, flat optical elements). She has authored two book chapters and more than 150 papers in international scientific journals. Additionally, she has led several prestigious projects funded by the European Union, the Bulgarian Science Fund, and international agencies. Marinova is a Fellow of SPIE, OPTICA, MRS, E-MRS, and AcademiaNET.

Here, we report the controlled synthesis and characterization of nanolayers (in form of two-dimensional (2D) materials and transparent conductive oxides (TCO)) and their intergation in optoelectronic and photonic devices. 2D materials have attracted intense potential for miniaturized (atomically thin) optoelectronic devices due to their layer number-dependent properties (strong intralayer covalent bonding and weak interlayer van der Waals interactions). In addition, they demonstrate extremely high optical anisotropy which gains an enormous interest for integration in ultrathin optics that allow light control at the subwavelength scale.

Another type of materials of interest are TCO layers, that prove superior performance indicating a growing demand for the next generation indium tin oxide (ITO)-free technology, including advanced display devices and dynamic flat-panel functionalities. For example, they can play multifunctional role in Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulators (SLM ) configurations as transparent conductive layer and as alignment layer allowing vertical alignment in LC molecules. Besides excellent phase modulation repeatability over the large-scale area, TCO's exhibits great potential for future integrated photonic devices including flexible strctures and bio-oriented technologies.

Kestutis Staliunas

Kestutis Staliunas

Professor, BarcelonaTech, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain
Title:

Photonic Crystal Spatial Filters

K. Staliunas is ICREA (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats) professor in Department of Physics of Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, head of research group of nonlinear optics. He is author of more than 200 articles with more than 8000 citations, h-factor 52. Up to now he directed (or currently directing) 20 PhD projects. His current research interests are: pattern formation in lasers, microlasers, metamaterials and metamirrors, in non-Hermitian spatially extended systems.
Photonic Crystals are well known to show the bandgaps in frequency (equivalently, in wavelength) domain. Less known is that they also show angular bandgaps, i.e. complicated angular transmission patterns. We show, that these angular bandgaps or quasi-bandgaps, can be used to efficient spatial filtering of light. The Photonic Crystals can work as spatial (or angular) filters. Such Photonic Crystal Spatial Filters are very compact – less than one millimeter thickness in the light propagation direction. They can be installed into the resonators of micro-lasers to improve the brightness of the emitted radiation.

S5. Optical Design and Engineering

Shizhuo Yin

Shizhuo Yin

Professor, Department of EECS, Penn State University, USA
Title:

Multifunctional crystalline materials and applications

Dr. Stuart (Shizhuo) Yin is a tenured full professor of electrical engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He is also the Co-founder and CTO of General Opto Solutions, LLC. He is a US citizen. He received his bachelor and master degrees in Physics from Nankai University, in 1984, and 1987, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 1993. He is an internationally known scientist in the field of advanced optical/photonic materials, devices, and their applications for optical sensing, communications, imaging, lighting, high power/energy lasers, and energy harvesting.

    Highlights of major accomplishments
  • Authored and co-authored over 300 papers in a variety of prestigious refereed journals and conference proceedings, including Nature.
  • Co-authored three books in optics field: (1) Photorefractive Optics (Academic Press, 2000), (2) Introduction to Information Optics (Academic Press, 2001), and (3) Fiber optic Sensors (CRC Press, 2018).
  • Awarded over twenty research projects, including the prestigious multi-disciplinary research initiative (MRI) award, funded from a variety of government agencies, industries, and private foundations with a total funding over $20 millions.
  • Elected as a fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) in 2004.
  • Elected as a fellow of Optical Society of America in 2007.
  • Won 1996 US Army Young Investigator Award.
  • Won 2004 Penn State Engineering Society's Outstanding Research Award
  • Won 2010 Penn State Engineering Society's Premier Research Award
  • Executive committee of SPIE on Photonic Engineering
  • Co-chair of SPIE on Photonic Crystal and Fiber Materials and Devices
  • Expert panel for a number of government agencies, including National Science Foundation, US Army, Department of Energy, et al.

In this talk, we report our recent works related to multifunctional crystalline materials and applications. First, we address the rare earth [ytterbium (Yb)] doped lithium niobate (LiNbO3) crystalline fiber. This unique crystalline fiber has multifunctional capability, including (1) a very effective low quantum defect lasing medium; (2) an electro-optically tunable medium, in which the refractive index of medium can be quickly tuned by the applied electric field; and (3) a light guiding medium, which offers the advantages of low driving voltage and power. The Yb:LiNbO3 can be very useful for a variety of applications, including highly electrically tunable, high efficiency, highly compact lasers and tunable spectral filters. Second, we discussed micro/nanostructured functional crystalline materials, in particular, micro/nanostructured Ti:sapphire crystals. This multi-functional crystal is not only an effective wide spectral tuning range lasing medium but also an effective wavelength selective medium due to the existence of micro/nanostructures, which is beneficial for applications such as highly compact, wavelength selective lasers and filters.

Silvano Donati

Silvano Donati

Professor, Department of Electronics, University of Pavia, Italy
Title:

Non-contact Vibration Measurements by Self-Mixing Interferometry

Silvano Donati earned a doctorate in Physics cum laude from University of Milan, Italy, and has been Full Professor of University of Pavia since 1980 before becoming Emeritus in 2015. He has authored or co-authored 350+ papers and holds a dozen patents, and has written two books, ‘Photodetectors’ (1st ed.: Prentice Hall, 2000, 2nd ed.: IEEE_Wiley 2021) and ‘Electro-Optical Instrumentation’ (1st ed.: Prentice Hall 2004, 2nd ed.: CRC 2023), covering the subject of his courses at University of Pavia and abroad. His main achievements have been self-mixing interferometry and chaos-shift-keying cryptography, the topics covered in his Distinguished Lecture talk given in 21 LEOS (now IPS) Chapters in two terms (2007-09) and continued as a Traveling Lecturer of OSA and SPIE on Self-Mixing and Lidars to date, for a total 105 Chapters visited. He has received several awards from the AEIT and IEEE, in particular the Marconi medal, the Aaron Kressel Award and the Distinguished Service Award of the IEEE Photonics Society. He was the founder (1996) and first Chairman (1997-01) of the Italian LEOS Chapter, LEOS VP Region 8 Membership (2002-04) and BoG (2004-06), and the Chairman of the IEEE Italy Section (2008-09). He has spent semesters as Visiting Professor in several Universities of Taiwan: NTU in Taipei, 2005, Sun Yat Sen in Kaohsiung (2007, 2008, 2010), NCKU in Tainan, 2012, NCHU in Taichung, 2013-14, NTUT in Taipei 2015-16 NTU in Taipei 2018-19 and NTUST in Taipei 2023. Prof. Donati is Life Fellow of the IEEE, Optica Emeritus Fellow and SPIE Life Member.

Self-mixing interferometry (SMI) is suitable to sense and measure vibrations of amplitudes ranging from picometers to millimeters at frequencies from sub-Hz to MHz’s. As an optical probe, SMI has the advantage of being non-invasive with the ability to measure without any treatment of the target surface and operate from a substantial standoff distance from the target. As an additional advantage, the SMI configuration is much simpler than that of conventional interferometers as it does not require any optical part external to the laser source. After a short introduction to the basics of SMI, we review the development of configurations of SMI instruments for vibration measurements, based on both analog and digital processing, with record performance to cover the range of vibration amplitudes from 0.1 nm to 1 mm, frequencies up to MHz, and stand-off distances up to 100 m. These performances set a benchmark that is unequaled by other approaches reported so far in the literature. The configurations we describe are (i) a simple MEMS-response testing instrument based on fringe counting, (ii) a half-fringe locking vibrometer for mechanical mode analysis, mechanical hysteresis cycle measurements and transfer function measurements, with a wide linear response on six decades of amplitude, (iii) a vibrometer with analog switching cancellation for μm-to-mm amplitude of vibrations for intrusion detection, and (iv) a long standoff distance vibrometer for testing large structures (dams, towers, bridges) at distances up to 100 m and with nm sensitivity.
Wen-Shing Sun

孫文信 Wen-Shing Sun

Associate Professor, Department of Optics and Photonics, National Central University
Title:

Full of view 50-degree projection lens design for AR glasses waveguide system

Education: PhD (1994/9 to 2002/1), Institute of Optical Sciences, National Central University.

Experience: Deputy Engineer (1990/7 to 1992/6), Institute of Opto-electronics, Industrial Technology Research Institute; Senior Engineer (1998/11 to 2002/1), Electromechanical Division, Delta Electronics Co., Ltd.; Optical consultant (2004/2 to 2005/7), Technology R&D Department, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.; Assistant Professor (2006/2 to 2012/7) and Associate Professor (2012/8 to present), Department of Optics and Photonics, National Central University.

The full field angle of 50 degrees projection lens is designed using of a 0.32-inch OLED panel and is composed of 4 plastic aspherical lenses. The aperture stop is on the first surface, F/# is 2.17, the entrance pupil diameter is 4 mm, and the lens length is 12.2 mm, the lens diameter (including lens barrel) is 10 mm, and the lens volume is less than 1 cc. This article proves that all Seidel aberrations of parallel light incident on a planar waveguide are zero, independent of the material and thickness of the waveguide. The projection lens AR glasses can be regarded as a magnifying glass design, with an angular magnification of 28.8 times. The line and lateral color resolutions are both less than 1 arcmin.
Tsung-Xian Lee

李宗憲 Tsung-Xian Lee

Professor, Graduate Institute of Color and Illumination Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Title:

Laser White Light: The Next Breakthrough in Solid-State Lighting Technology

Tsung-Xian Lee is a Professor at the Graduate Institute of Color and Illumination Technology at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. Professor Lee obtained his BS in physics from National Sun Yat-Sen University, and his MS and PhD in optics sciences from National Central University. His doctoral research focused on LED light extraction. Additionally, he gained valuable experience while working at EPISTAR Corporation, where he conducted research on advanced LED die and packaging technologies. With over ten years of experience in the field of LED solid-state lighting, he remains dedicated to developing various LED applications. His current research interests include intelligent solid-state lighting, advanced optical system design, human health & wellbeing lighting, and color & spectrum sensing application.
As solid-state lighting technology advances, laser white light emerges as the next revolutionary breakthrough. Combining the high brightness, low etendue consumption, and long lifespan of lasers, laser white light offers new possibilities for various applications, from high-performance projection systems to precision medical imaging and next-generation automotive lighting. This presentation will explore the advantages of laser white light in solid-state lighting, analyze its challenges and opportunities in optical design, and demonstrate how this innovative technology can transform our lighting environments and daily lives. Through this new technology, we aim to enhance lighting quality further and promote more innovative application solutions.
Chun-Yuan Fan

樊俊遠 Chun-Yuan Fan

Assistant Professor, Graduate Insitute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Title:

From the Wave Optics to the Ray Tracing: A Novel Photonic Integrated Circuit with Broadband and High-Efficiency Focusing

Chun-Yuan Fan received his Ph.D. in Photonics and Optoelectronics from National Taiwan University in 2021. He is a photonics and optical system design professional, especially in the connection between wave optics and ray tracing. He also established and designed a deep learning system for the company's optical application. He was a postdoc at the UC Berkeley EECS department and a researcher at Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC), working on a project on the quantum-trapped ions system. He is an Assistant Professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Graduate Institute of Electro-optical Engineering.
In the past, the connection between wave optics and ray tracing has been exciting research. In this presentation, I will introduce a strategy to approximate the wave optics to ray tracing and design a novel photonic integrated circuit to focus the waveguide's light precisely into free space. Instead of diffraction optical elements, we proposed a silicon photonic circuit via a planar waveguide lens and a 3D-printed iconic mirror. Our device achieves an effective achromatic beam focusing from 405 to 810 nm (and beyond). Moreover, we have measured 30 dB crosstalk at a five μm pitch for the 532 and 729 nm. This integrated photonic circuit has the potential for quantum-trapped ions computing.
Daewook Kim

Daewook Kim

Associate Professor, Wyant College of Optical Sciences, Arizona state university, USA
Title:

Optical Trilogy: Design, Fabrication, and Testing for Astronomical Telescopes

Daewook Kim is an associate professor of Optical Sciences and Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has devoted his efforts to a multitude of space and ground-based large optical engineering projects. His primary research focuses on precision freeform optics design, fabrication, and various metrology topics, including interferometry and dynamic deflectometry. For over a decade, he has actively participated in various conference programs and short courses related to optics, delivering more than 20 plenary, keynote, and colloquium talks at various international conferences and universities. Kim's academic contributions include authoring over 300 journal/conference papers and serving as an associate editor for Optics Express (2013 – 2019). His academic achievements have led to his recognition as an SPIE Fellow, and he was elected to the SPIE Board of Directors for the term spanning 2024 to 2026.
Three-fold advancements in optical design, fabrication, and testing are crucial to the development of next-generation astronomical telescope systems. This presentation introduces innovative telescope architectures enabled by scalable optical engineering techniques, along with recent data that offer insights into the next quantum leap in astronomical telescopes.
Silvano Donati

Upendra N. Singh

NASA Technical Fellow for Sensors and Instrumentation, NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), NASA Langley Research Center, USA
Title:

NASA Sensors and Instrumentation: Driving Technologies to Enable an Innovative and Prosperous Future

Dr. Upendra N. Singh, NASA Technical Fellow for Sensors and Instrumentation at NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), leads a group of multi-disciplinary Sensors and instrumentation expert team from NASA, industry, academia, and Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) and conducts independent investigation of NASA tactical challenges; Sensors and Instrumentation assessment; develops approaches to identify, solve and prevent sensors and instrumentation related problems throughout the Agency, as well as developing strategies, plans, and priorities for maintaining and advancing the Sensors and Instrumentation discipline for NASA's critical missions. Dr. Singh has organized over 50 international symposia/conferences and has authored/co-authored over 500 scientific articles in atmospheric sciences and remote sensing area. He is an elected fellow of the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), the Indian Meteorological Society and a Senior Member of IEEE. He served on the Board of Director for the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) during 2009-11, and the President of International Coordination Group of Laser Atmospheric Studies (ICLAS) of International Radiation Commission (IRC) during 2008-2015.

Dr. Singh has received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (2016, 2001); NASA Langley's H.J.E. Reid Award (2005) and NASA's Exceptional Service Medal (2006).

NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) stems from the NASA Office of the Chief Engineer and is dedicated to conducting discipline specific gap analyses to identify areas for strategic investment; leading in-depth investigation of the state of the discipline and providing recommendations to senior NASA management on investment, divestment, and consolidation; and providing input to strategic planning and roadmap activities for 20 distinct disciplines, including Sensors and Instrumentation. The Sensors and Instrumentation discipline, which includes optics and photonics, is critical to ensuring the health and safety of NASA's missions, as well as providing innovative solutions that enable future discovery.

S6. Biophotonics and Biomedical Imaging

T. Tony Yang

楊東霖 T. Tony Yang

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University
Title:

Expansion localization microscopy unravels the molecular-resolution constitution of mammalian centrioles

Dr. T. Tony Yang received his bachelor's and master's degree from National Taiwan University in 2003 and 2005 respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2014. He continued his postdoctoral training in the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica since 2014. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Taiwan University in summer 2019.
Distal appendages (DAPs) are vital in cilia formation, mediating vesicular and ciliary docking to the plasma membrane during early ciliogenesis. Although numerous DAP proteins arranging a nine-fold symmetry have been studied using superresolution microscopy analyses, the extensive ultrastructural understanding of the DAP structure developing from the centriole wall remains elusive owing to insufficient resolution. Here, we proposed a pragmatic imaging strategy for two-color single-molecule localization microscopy of expanded mammalian DAP. Importantly, our imaging workflow enables us to push the resolution limit of a light microscope well close to a molecular level, thus achieving an unprecedented mapping resolution inside intact cells. Upon this workflow, we unravel the ultra-resolved higher-order protein complexes of the DAP and its associated proteins. Intriguingly, our images show that C2CD3, microtubule triplet, MNR, CEP90, OFD1, and ODF2 jointly constitute a unique molecular configuration at the DAP base. Moreover, our finding suggests that ODF2 plays an auxiliary role in coordinating and maintaining DAP nine-fold symmetry. Together, we develop an organelle-based drift correction protocol and a two-color solution with minimum crosstalk, allowing a robust localization microscopy imaging of expanded DAP structures deep into the gel-specimen composites.
George Barbastathis

George Barbastathis

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Title:

Optical real-time monitoring of complex processes

George Barbastathis received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1993 from the National Technical University of Athens (Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο) and the MSc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1994 and 1997, respectively, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech.) After post-doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined the faculty at MIT in 1999, where he is now Professor of Mechanical Engineering and holds the Singapore Research endowed chair. He has worked or held visiting appointments at Harvard University, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Michigan - Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (密西根交大學院) in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. His research interests are in machine learning and optimization for computational imaging and inverse problems; and optical system design, including artificial optical materials and interfaces. He is member of the Society for Photo Instrumentation Engineering (SPIE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the Society for Photo Instrumentation Engineering (SPIE) and between 2019-2024 served as Associate Editor for the journal Optica.

In this talk I will be making two points: first, that when the desirable from an optical measurement is a set of parameters describing a complex physical process, then the image formation step is not always necessary; indeed, in some cases it may be beneficial to bypass it. Instead, the measurements registered on the transducer (sensor) should be treated as an encoding of the process under study; and the purpose of “imaging” is to decode it using the relevant parameterized physical process models. The second point is that laser speckle can be an especially efficient encoder, e.g. for reaction-diffusion processes. Applications include pharmaceutical manufacturing process control, e.g. mixing and drying; and retinal diagnostics, e.g. for glaucoma forecasting.
Tomomi Nemoto

根本知己 Tomomi Nemoto

Professor, Biophotonics Research Group, Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS), National Institute of Natural Sciences, Japan
Title:

Advancements in in vivo Two-Photon Microscopic Imaging in the Mouse Brain through Novel Optical Technologies

He graduated from Sch Science of Univ Tokyo in 1991 and received a PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1996, followed by the postdoctoral fellows at RIKEN and University of Tokyo in 1996-1999. After assistant professor and independent associate professor in NIPS, he promoted to full professor in Res Inst Electronic Sci, Hokkaido Univ and subsequently doubled as Director of Nikon Imaging Center at Hokkaido Univ. In 2019, he moved to ExCELLS and NIPS.
Two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy is a powerful technique that significantly enhances our understanding of physiological processes at both the cellular and tissue levels. This technique's effectiveness is largely due to the nonlinear excitation mechanism triggered by near-infrared ultrashort laser pulses. In our recent work, we have been actively developing and applying optical technologies aimed at improving observation depth, area coverage, duration, and spatial resolution in in vivo imaging of the living mouse brain. This presentation will highlight our latest advancements and explore the future potential of two-photon microscopy.
Dalip Singh Mehta

Dalip Singh Mehta

Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Title:

Optical Coherence Microscopy and Nanoscopy using Spatial Coherence Engineering: Speckle-free Quantitative Phase Imaging of Biological Cells with High Spatial and Temporal Phase Sensitivity and High Space Bandwidth Product

Dr. Dalip Singh Mehta is currently a Professor at the Department of Physics since 2012, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Previously, he worked as Associate Professor and Assistant Professor (June 2002 - Dec. 2012), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Before Joining the Institute, he was JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellow (July 2000 - June 2002) at the University of Electro-communications, Tokyo, Japan, Post-Doctoral Fellow National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan (Nov. 1999–May 2000) Research Associate, NPL, New Delhi, STA Post-Doctoral Fellow (June 1997 – May 1998), NIRE, Tsukuba, Japan and UNESCO Research Fellow (Jan. 1996 – Sept.1996), Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo, Japan.

He has contributed more than 205 research papers in International Refereed Journals, and more than 240 in International and National Conferences. He has delivered more than 95 Invited Talks/Lectures in various International and National Conferences and Universities. He has supervised 28 Ph. D. students and currently supervising 11 Ph. D. students. He has also supervised more than 95 M. Tech./B. Tech. /M.Sc. students’ major projects. He has filed 15 patents out of which 12 patents awarded and 3 Technologies Transferred to Industry.

Research Interests:

Bio-photonics & Biomedical Optical Imaging: Optical Coherence Tomography, Label-free Quantitative Phase Microscopy & Nanoscopy, Multi-modal Optical Imaging and Spectroscopic Point-of-care Devices for Oral and Cervical Cancer fast screening, Diagnosis & Detection.

Quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) has recently become indispensable technology for label-free quantitative analysis of various biological cells and tissues for early-stage disease detection. Using QPM one can determine the variation of refractive index and thickness precisely, cell dry mass concentration, cell membrane fluctuation, sickle cell imaging, hemoglobin concentration, etc. The key parameters controlling measurement accuracy and capability of any QPM systems depend on its spatial and temporal phase sensitivity, speckle-free imaging and high space-bandwidth product. Most QPM techniques utilize highly coherent light sources like lasers benefited by their remarkable properties, such as, high spatial and temporal coherence, and brightness. High spatio-temporal coherence leads to occurrence of speckle noise and spurious fringes leading to inhomogeneous illumination and poor spatial phase sensitivity. We report coherent-noise free QPM with an order of magnitude improved spatial phase sensitivity, space-bandwidth product and high temporal phase. The results of QPM images of biological cells are compared with low temporal coherence and high coherence light. We found that using spatially partially coherent light a speckle-free and unform illumination over large field-of-view. The uniform illumination leads to large interferometric field-of-view leading to the reconstruction of phase map of large no of biological cells in single shot manner [1-8].

Experimental results of complete reconstruction of sperm cells with high accuracy are demonstrated. We could differentiate between the healthy and unhealthy sperm cells and oxidative stressed and unstressed conditions. Further, using quantitative phase we could perform nanoscopy using multiple signal classification algorithm (MUSICAL). These findings can be used for IVF technology. The QPM was further used for cell-to-cell interaction using common path interferometer with speckle-free and high temporal stability [5-8]. More recently we have developed speckle-free hyperspectral quantitative phase microscopy for biological cells and tissues [9-10]. The technique was applied for phase imaging of cancer cells. Using hyperspectral QPM decoupling of refractive index and thickness of transparent cells and samples. Finally, the QPM system was combined with optical tweezers system and phase map of waveguide trapped polystyrene spheres and biological cells is reconstructed.

Keywords: Phase Microscopy, Spatial Coherence, Phase Sensitivity, Bandwidth Product.

    References:
  • Quantitative Phase Microscopy and Tomography: Techniques using partially spatially coherent monochromatic light, Dalip Singh Mehta, Ankit Butola, Veena Singh, IOP Publishing 2022.
  • Virendra Kumar, Atul Kumar Dubey, Mayank Gupta, Veena Singh, Ankit Butola, Dalip Singh Mehta, Speckle noise reduction strategies in laser-based projection imaging, fluorescence microscopy, and digital holography with uniform illumination, improved image sharpness, and resolution, Optics & Laser Technology 141, 107079 (2021).
  • A. Ahmad, Vishesh Dubey, Nikhil Jayakumar, Anowarul Habib, Ankit Butola, Mona Nystad, Ganesh Acharya, Purusotam Basnet, Dalip Singh Mehta, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, “High-throughput spatial sensitive quantitative phase microscopy using low spatial and high temporal coherent illumination,” Scientific Reports 11, 1 (2021).
  • A. Butola, D. Popova, D. K. Prasad, A. Ahmad, A. Habib, J. C. Tinguely, P. Basnet, P. Senthilkumaran, D. S. Mehta and B. S. Ahluwalia, “High spatially sensitive quantitative phase imaging assisted with deep neural network for classification of human spermatozoa under stressed condition” Scientific Reports 10, 1(2020).
  • A. Butola, Sheetal Raosaheb Kanade, Sunil Bhatt, Vishesh Kumar Dubey, Anand Kumar, Azeem Ahmad, Dilip K Prasad, Paramasivam Senthilkumaran, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, Dalip Singh Mehta, “High space-bandwidth in quantitative phase imaging using partially spatially coherent digital holographic microscopy and a deep neural network, Optics Express 28, 36229 (2020).
  • R. Singh, V. Dubey, D. Wolfson, A. Ahmad, A. Butola, G. Acharya, D. S. Mehta, P. Basnet, B. S. Ahluwalia , “Quantitative assessment of morphology and sub-cellular changes in macrophages and trophoblasts during inflammation” Biomedical Optics Express 11, 3733 (2020).
  • Ankit Butola, David A Coucheron, Karolina Szafranska, Azeem Ahmad, Hong Mao, Jean-Claude Tinguely, Peter McCourt, Paramasivam Senthilkumaran, Dalip Singh Mehta, Krishna Agarwal, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, Multimodal on-chip nanoscopy and quantitative phase imaging reveals the nanoscale morphology of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, PNAS-Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (47) (2021), pp. e2115323118.
  • Dalip Singh Mehta, Shilpa Tayal, Azeem Ahmad, Sunil Bhatt, Vishesh Kumar Dubey, Ankit Butola, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, Effect of partial spatial coherence of light on quantitative phase microscopy of biological samples: improved spatial phase sensitivity, space-bandwidth product, and high accuracy in phase measurement, Proceedings of SPIE BiOS Vol. 12389, Quantitative Phase Imaging IX; 123890L (2023).
  • Anuj Saxena, Azeem Ahmad, Vishesh Dubey, Anowarul Habib, Satish Kumar Dubey, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia & Dalip Singh Mehta, Dynamic quantitative phase imaging using calcite crystal-based temporally stable interferometer, J. Mod. Opt. 70 (19-21), 973-982 (2024).
  • Himanshu Joshi, Bhanu Pratap Singh, Ankit Butola, Varun Surya, Deepika Mishra, Krishna Agarwal and Dalip Singh Mehta, Compact Linnik-type hyperspectral quantitative phase microscope for advanced classification of cellular components Compact Linnik-type hyperspectral quantitative phase microscope for advanced classification of cellular components J. Biophotonics 17(8), 1-11 (2024).

S7. Display and Solid State Lighting

Ryoto Kabe

嘉部量太 Ryoto Kabe

Assistant Professor, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan
Title:

Persistent and stimulated luminescence of organic semiconductors

Dr. Ryota Kabe is an Assistant Professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). He received his BS from Kansai University, MS from Osaka University, and Ph.D. from Kyushu University (2010). After working as a postdoctoral fellow at Bowling Green State University (2010-2011), Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (2011-2012), and Kyushu University (2012-2014), he joined Kyushu University as an assistant professor and worked with Prof. Chihaya Adachi (2014-2019). In 2019, he moved to OIST to lead the Organic Optoelectronics Unit. His research interests include synthesizing novel organic materials and the control of organic exciton dynamics and their application in optoelectronics.
Long-persistent luminescence (LPL) in materials, particularly inorganic metal oxides, occurs due to charge carriers generated by light absorption that are trapped and gradually released by thermal energy at room temperature. In organic materials, charge separation can occur through intermolecular charge transfer excited states. By reducing the charge recombination probability, charge carriers remain for a long term. Recombination of stored charges results in emission, which in organic systems often includes thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). Stimulus-responsive emission, both thermal and photo-stimulated, can be achieved by stabilizing the charge-separated state by adding the carrier trap materials.
Chun-Ta Wang

王俊達 Chun-Ta Wang

Associate Professor, Department of Photonics, National Sun Yat-sen University
Title:

Switchable Liquid Crystal Polarization Volume Gratings: Design and Applications

Dr. Chun-Ta Wang earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Photonics at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) in 2012, specializing in liquid crystal materials science. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Photonics at NSYSU from 2012 to 2015, during which he initiated research on silicon photonics. From 2015 to 2018, he continued his work as an independent postdoctoral scholar and actively participated in international collaborations and academic exchanges. From 2016 to 2017, he was a visiting scholar at Ghent University in Belgium, where he deepened his expertise in active silicon photonic devices using liquid crystal claddings. Subsequently, from 2017 to 2018, he served as a visiting scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, focusing on research in Berry phase optic elements. In September 2018, Dr. Chun-Ta Wang joined the Department of Photonics at NSYSU as a faculty member. His research primarily focuses on liquid crystal optics and silicon photonics.
Liquid crystal polarization gratings (LCPGs) have attracted significant interest and widespread application in recent years due to their numerous advantages over conventional diffraction gratings. Generally, transmissive (T-type) LCPGs utilize nematic liquid crystals. In contrast, reflective (R-type) LCPGs incorporate cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) in the planar state, which are often referred to as polarization volume gratings (PVGs) [2-3]. PVGs typically provide a larger diffraction angle than T-type LCPGs, making them highly promising for photonic devices such as waveguide couplers, holograms, and beam deflectors. In this presentation, we will introduce the concept of PVGs and demonstrate the fabrication of both passive and active PVGs. A waveguide display utilizing PVGs will also be presented.
Masahito Oh-e

大江昌人 Masahito Oh-e

Professor, Institute of Photonics Technologies, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University
Title:

Novel switching of liquid crystals for use in rapid THz modulation: Mastering liquid crystals beyond displays

Professor Masahito Oh-e earned his master's degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, after which he worked as a research scientist at the Hitachi Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. He went on to earn his Ph.D. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology while also working as a research scientist at Hitachi, Ltd. He then became a visiting research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Continuing to work at Hitachi, he worked with the Japanese government on several projects as part of the Yokoyama Nano-structured Liquid Crystal Project between 2002 and 2008 under research programs called “Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology” and “Solution Oriented Research for Science and Technology” organized by Japan Science and Technology Agency. In 2016, Dr. Oh-e began working as a professor at the Institute of Photonics Technologies, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. As one of the inventors of in-plane switching (IPS) liquid crystal displays (LCDs), Dr. Oh-e has successfully built many frameworks based on IPS technology, which has enabled developing flat panel monitors and TVs. During this research, Dr. Oh-e eventually contributed to successfully developing ultra-broad viewing angle LCD screens, which are now an industry standard used in numerous common devices such as LCD TVs, tablets, and smartphones, including iPhones.
Liquid crystal (LC) devices for terahertz (THz) phase modulation have a thick cell gap, which inevitably results in a very slow response, particularly when they rely on the passive relaxation of LCs. To vastly improve the response characteristics of LCs for use in THz phase modulation, we virtually demonstrate novel LC switching between in-plane and out-of-plane for reversible switching between three orthogonal orientation states, broadening the range of continuous phase shifts. This LC switching is realized using a pair of substrates, each with two pairs of orthogonal finger-type electrodes and one grating-type electrode for in- and out-of-plane switching. An applied voltage generates an electric field that drives each switching process between the three distinct orientation states, enabling a rapid response.
Kun-Yu Lai

賴昆佑 Kun-Yu Lai

Professor, Department of Optics and Photonics, National Central University
Title:

Detecting cancer by the plasmonic effect of InGaN quantum wells

Prof. Kun-Yu Lai is currently a professor in the Department of Optics and Photonics (DOP) at National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan. He joined the faculty in DOP at NCU in 2011, where he specializes in the growth/fabrication of novel III-nitrides optoelectronic devices and the optical properties of low-dimensional structures.
Cancer is fatal, but can be cured if detected early. Tracking circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), released from abnormal cells into the blood, is a promising tactic for cancer diagnosis. Although technically feasible, unambiguously identifying ctDNA is a challenging and demanding task. This is because the task often entails four complicated steps, i.e., surface functionalization, probe immobilization, fluorescent labeling and probe-target hybridization. Each step requires multiple hours to complete the binding between functional molecules. To capture the target quickly, we present a linker-free, label-free, hybrid-free DNA detection by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), using InGaN quantum wells (QWs) as a performance booster. This is realized by tuning the band gaps of QWs, within which the confined electrons resonate with those vibrating on the roughened Al surface and the oligonucleotide. The QW-Al-DNA resonance results in a selective amplification of specific SERS signals, allowing us to identify four distinct ctDNAs responsible for pancreatic, thyroid, lung, and breast cancers.
Jiun-Haw Lee

李君浩 Jiun-Haw Lee

Professor, Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, National Taiwan University
Title:

Triplet management of blue organic light-emitting diode for higher efficiency and longest lifetime

Prof. Jiun-Haw Lee received BS and Ph. D degree in electrical engineering in 1994 and 2000, respectively, from National Taiwan University. From 2000 to 2003, he was with the RiTdisplay Corporation as the director. Since 2003, he joined the faculty of National Taiwan University in the Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics and the Department of Electrical Engineering, where he is currently a professor.

His research interests include display technologies, organic light-emitting diode, thin-film solar cells, organic solar cell, optoelectronic devices. Prof. Jiun-Haw Lee has done many pioneering works in the areas of carrier and exciton dynamics of organic thin-film device, as well as photonic design of organic light-emitting diode (OLED). He is fellow of Optica, SID, and SPIE.

In this talk, blue organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based on triplet-triplet fusion (TTF) mechanism with high efficiency and long operation lifetime will be presented. TTF mechanism is the main stream for mass production of blue OLED displays due to lower triplet energy (~1.7 eV) which resulted in acceptable operation lifetime but lower external quantum efficiency (EQE) compared to phosphorescence (Ph) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) because of less exciton utilization efficiency. Here, spatial and temporal distribution of triplet excitons in blue TTF-OLED was manipulated through material selection and device engineering, achieving maximum EQE higher than 16.5%, which is the highest record for blue TTF-OLED. More surprisingly, 4x improvement in operation lifetime was obtained which significantly alleviated the burn-in issue of blue OLED. It is also the longest lifetime of all kinds of blue OLED (including Ph, TADF, and TTF) ever reported.

S8. Energy Photonics and Sustainable Technology

Cheng-Liang Liu

劉振良 Cheng-Liang Liu

Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University
Title:

Organic/Hybrid Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

Prof. Cheng-Liang Liu is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at National Taiwan University. He received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 2002 and 2007, respectively. He then worked as visiting scientist at the University of Washington (USA) from 2005 to 2006, postdoctoral fellow at National Taiwan University from 2008 to 2010, Assistant Professor at Yamagata University (Japan) from 2010 to 2012, Assistant and Associate Professor at National Central University (Taiwan) from 2012 to 2020, before joining National Taiwan University in 2020. His group focuses on exploring organic polymers and hybrid materials, targeting electronic and energy applications, including transistors, memory devices, solar cells, and thermoelectrics. He currently serves as Associate Editor for Polymer Journal and Journal of Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers.

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Organic thermoelectric materials can directly transform the waste heat into electrical power without causing any pollution, but their development is limited due to poor performance, especially low conductivity. In my talk, we outline the design strategies which aim to develop high-performing organic semiconductors and their materials in organic thermoelectrics. A series of solution-processed organic semiconducting molecules are reported. These results indicate that these materials can be modulated through successive changes in conjugation length/side chain substituent length and molecular interaction based on a combination of molecular design and solution-processing techniques. Doping organic semiconductors, conjugated polymer composites, and gels with ionic salt or redox couples are used to achieve enhanced thermoelectric performance. Flexible/wearable thermoelectric generator based on these materials will be demonstrated.
Chang-Hua Liu

劉昌樺 Chang-Hua Liu

Associate Professor, Institute of Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University
Title:

Advancing Sustainable Mid-Infrared Optoelectronics with Black Phosphorus-Based van der Waals Heterostructures

Professor Liu leads a research group at the Institute of Photonics Technology, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU). His research focuses on the electrical, optical, and mechanical properties of emerging two-dimensional materials and their applications in optoelectronic and optomechanical devices. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2014, where he worked on graphene photodetectors. Afterward, he spent 1.5 years at Northwestern University developing atomically-thin optomechanics, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington, where he integrated 2D materials with nanophotonics. Professor Liu has co-authored 30 peer-reviewed publications, leading to multiple patents and a startup.

The development of high-performance, sustainable and silicon-compatible mid-infrared optoelectronics is crucial for advancing on-chip sensing and spectroscopic technologies. Traditionally, these devices have relied on III-V/II-VI compound semiconductors, which often face performance limitations due to lattice and thermal mismatches at heterointerfaces. Black phosphorus (BP), with its direct and narrow bandgap (approximately 0.3 eV in bulk), offers a promising alternative. Its van der Waals (vdW) nature allows for seamless integration onto various substrates and photonic structures, making BP-based optoelectronics highly suitable for mid-infrared integrated photonics.

This talk outlines the design of mid-infrared photodetectors using BP-based van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, which offer linear dichroism, broad spectral sensitivity (from visible to mid-infrared), high external quantum efficiency, and rapid operation (exceeding 200 MHz) at room temperature. These photodetectors can be seamlessly integrated with silicon waveguides. Additionally, we will demonstrate how vdW engineering of BP-based heterostructures enables the realization of mid-infrared emitters with long-term stability and electrically tunable wavelength and polarization features. These advancements hold significant potential for mid-IR sensing, data processing, and imaging technologies.

Yu-Ching Huang

黃裕清 Yu-Ching Huang

Professor, Department of Materials Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology
Title:

Towards Highly Efficient 4-Terminal Perovskite/Si Tandem Solar Cells

Dr. Yu-Ching Huang is currently a Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at Ming Chi University of Technology (MCUT). He is also the group leader of the Biochemical Technology R&D Center at MCUT. Dr. Huang's research interests are primarily concerned with exploring the fundamental mechanism of organic electronic materials, structural analysis, and the development of commercial mass production process technologies for emerging organic electronics. Dr. Huang's impressive academic achievements include the development of large-area solution process technologies for emerging photovoltaics (PVs), such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs).

With the increasing global focus on achieving net-zero carbon emissions, improving the efficiency of low-carbon energy has emerged as a key strategy for reducing carbon footprints. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have received much attention due to their long exciton diffusion length, high carrier mobility, and tunable bandgap. Although the current power conversion efficiency (PCE) of single-junction PSCs exceeds 26%, which is comparable to that of silicon solar cells, this efficiency is close to the Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit. To further improve the PCE of single-junction solar cells, tandem solar cells, in which the top cell with high energy bandgap is paired with the bottom silicon solar cell are a promising solution for breaking through the SQ limit. Compared to single-junction solar cells, tandem solar cells effectively reduce thermalization and sub-bandgap absorption losses by rationally distributing the absorption of sunlight between the top and bottom cells. Therefore, well-designed semi-transparent wide-bandgap PSCs are a prerequisite for the realization of high-efficiency tandem solar cells. However, the efficacy of wide bandgap PSCs is hampered by photo-induced phase separation and energy level incompatibility, which results in significant open circuit voltage (Voc) losses when the proportion of Br ions exceeds 20%. This present addresses this challenge by partially replacing Br with Cs and refining the composition of the perovskite precursor through cation incorporation. This strategic approach preserves the wide bandgap and improves the photostability of wide bandgap perovskite films. By carefully optimizing these films, the efficiency of the semi-transparent concentrator solar cell was increased to 19.21%, and the PCE of the four-terminal PSC/silicon tandem solar cell reached ~30%.

figure
Figure. 4-Terminal perovskite/Si tandem solar cells.

Keywords: perovskite solar cells, tandem, wide bandgap, phase segregation

Chu-Chen Chueh

闕居振 Chu-Chen Chueh

Professor, Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University
Title:

Interface Design for Efficient Organic, Perovskite and Perovskite/Organic Tandem Solar Cells

Prof. Chueh's research team focuses on solution-processable semiconductors, including organic small molecules, conjugated polymers, and organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites, and focusing on their applications in memories, light-emitting diodes, transistors, and solar cells. Dr. Chueh received Young Faculty Awards from Taiwanese Institute of Chemical Engineers and from the Polymer Society, Taipei (2020), Ta-You Wu Memorial Award from National Science Council, Taiwan (2022) and Outstanding Asian Researcher and Engineer Award from the Society of Chemical Engineers (SCEJ), Japan (2024). He has coauthored over 240 scientific papers in the area of organic/hybrid optoelectronics with citation > 22900 and H-index of 78 (recorded by Google scholar). Dr. Chueh has been recognized by Clarivate Analytics as 2018, 2019 Highly Cited Researcher and by I&EC Research as 2020 Class of Influential Researchers.
Our research group focuses on the development of functional polymer materials and/or interlayers for various kinds of optoelectronic devices, including thin-film transistor (TFT), (photo-)memory, light-emitting diode (LED), and solar cell devices. We are particularly interested in exploring the structure-performance relationships of polymers and hybrid perovskites. In addition to advances in the controlled synthesis of organic semiconductors, we also explore innovative interfacial and device engineering to optimize the device performance. Herein, we highlight our recent works on interface engineering for organic, perovskite and perovskite/organic tandem solar cells. In this presentation, an integrated study of combining material synthesis, interface engineering, and morphology analyses will be introduced and discussed to explore the full promise of the devices, with a particular focus on long-term device stability
Wei-Hsuan Hung

洪緯璿 Wei-Hsuan Hung

Professor, Graduate College of Sustainability and Green Energy / Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (IMSE), National Central University (NCU)
Title:

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Biography
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S9. Optical Sensing

Peng-Chun Peng

彭朋群 Peng-Chun Peng

Professor, Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology
Title:

Large-Scale and High-Capacity Sensing Systems Utilizing Free-Space Optics

Peng-Chun Peng earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering at National Chiao Tung University in 2005. He currently serves as a full professor and the chairman of the Department of Electro-Optical Engineering at the National Taipei University of Technology. Dr. Peng has authored over 150 journal articles and holds 9 U.S. patents. His work has been cited over 4000 times (H-index: 31). He has been invited to participate on the technical program committees for several prestigious conferences, including the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), the OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (OECC), the International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP), the Asia Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP), and the Wireless and Optical Communications Conference (WOCC).
We review the integration of free-space optics (FSO), fiber-optic sensing technologies, and advanced deep learning algorithms to enhance large-scale, high-capacity sensing systems. This presentation will explore emerging FSO-assisted fiber-optic sensing technologies, emphasizing innovative designs, performance optimization, and system improvements. Additionally, it will highlight how these integrated solutions address current communication and sensing challenges.
Fu-Liang Yang

楊富量 Fu-Liang Yang

Distinguishe Research Fellow, Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica
Title:

Outlook for pulse oximeter applications

Biography content

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the market for pulse oximeters rapidly expanded, as blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) became an important indicator for assessing the severity of a patient's condition. The technology for blood oxygen monitors has reached a mature stage due to their simplicity of use. With numerous manufacturers offering blood oxygen monitor products on the saturated market, competition has grown fierce. To enhance product value and remain competitive, manufacturers must add more features to their products, such as new indicators or abnormality detection functions. Incorporating blood pressure and blood glucose measurements, as well as atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection, into pulse oximeter is on our priority list, due to they are indications for ischemic heart diseases, stroke, and diabetes. When arrhythmias occur, patients need to be vigilant, especially since atrial fibrillation increases the risk of stroke fivefold, making early warning crucial. While the gold standard for AFib detection is through analyzing 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal measured by oximeters also originates from the cardiac cycle, allowing it to extract heart rate variability features with additional information on blood flow volume. Out of the 460 testing data points, the method had only 2 false-positive results and 0 false-negative results. Our innovative AI-based, non-invasive blood glucose meter requires only one calibration is needed for users not affected by medications. For complicated medication subjects, our best practice (Deduction Learning) shows only 12 calibration data points are required to achieve 90% accuracy. In addition, the original AI Deduction Learning method was also utilized and modified to accurately measure blood pressure, with the aforementioned pulse oximeter. This extended functionality offers a more comprehensive physiological health monitoring, allowing users to obtain more physiological indicators through a single simple pulse oximeter. Providing early warning and preventive measures, it helps users better manage and prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

ChengKuo, Vincent, Lee

ChengKuo, Vincent, Lee

Professor, National University of Singapore
Title:

CMOS Photonics Platform – Sensing and Computation

Dr. Lee received his Ph.D. degree from The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. He is the GlobalFoundries Chair Professor in Engineering and director of the Center for Intelligent Sensors and MEMS at the National University of Singapore, Singapore. He co-founded Asia Pacific Microsystems, Inc. (APM) in 2001, where he was Vice President of R&D from 2001 to 2005. From 2006 to 2009, he was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), A-STAR, Singapore. His research interests include MEMS, NEMS, Nanophotonics, Si Photonics, metamaterials, energy harvesting, wearable sensors, flexible electronics, artificial intelligence of things (AIoT). He has trained 43+ Ph.D. students graduated from the ECE Dept., NUS. He has co-authored 500+ journal articles and 380+ conference papers. His Google Scholar citation is more than 37000. He is one of the 39 professors at NUS awarded Highly Cited Researcher Designations in 2023 (Clarivate). His D-index (Discipline H-index) ranks 300th among all electronics and electrical engineering scientists globally (Research.com, Dec. 2022).
Si and AlN waveguides can manipulate light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, is an appealing technology for photonics neural networks (PNN) computation application and diversified biochemical and physical sensing applications with high sensitivity and small footprints. Recently, the mid-infrared that encompasses multiple atmospheric windows and abundant molecular absorption fingerprints presents a significant growth opportunity for integrated photonics, with applications ranging from clinical diagnosis to astronomical spectroscopy. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the recent advances in research on near-IR and mid-IR optical waveguides and their emerging applications.
Wanvisa Talataisong

Wanvisa Talataisong

Research Fellow, School of Physics, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand
Title:

Optical fiber sensing device: Future technology for environmental monitoring

Dr. Wanvisa Talataisong is a leader of the research group on “Photonics and Optical fiber sensors (PFS)” at Suranaree University of Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Optoelectronics from Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton in 2021. Her PhD research project was the design and fabrication of microstructured polymer optical fibers (MPOFs) based on direct extrusion and drawn technique. After she received her PhD degree, she worked as a research fellow at Optoelectronics Research Center, University of Southampton from 2021-2022. During her research fellow period at Southampton, she supervised 2 master's degree students on the surface plasmon resonance for methane sensing project. One of them achieved a master's degree with merit. In 2022, she was awarded as the 2022 Winner of Optica Foundation 20th Anniversary Challenge from OPTICA from the research project on optical fiber sensor for environment monitoring and she has been awarded as the great PhD research award by National Research Council of Thailand in 2023. Dr. Talataisong started working as a physics lecturer at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT). Research in PFS group at SUT is focused on direct extrusion and draw technique to fabricate microstructured polymer optical fibers (MPOFs), design, simulate and optimize the optical fiber structure for various guiding wavelength including mid-infrared (Mid-IR) and THz fiber. The applications of optical fiber in communication system, biological, chemical, environment and medical sensors.

Over the past century, the world's population has surged, resulting in a rapid expansion of industrial manufacturing plants. Thailand, particularly its capital Bangkok, has experienced significantly worsening air quality since early 2019. Pollution levels, including PM2.5 and greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) remain hazardous in many parts of Bangkok and its surrounding provinces.

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas with a 100-year global warming potential which is ~80 times higher thermal absorption and radiation than that of carbon dioxide. Its atmospheric mixing ratio has increased more than two-fold since the preindustrial period, contributing ~20% of the radiative climate forcing for all greenhouse gases. Future anthropogenic impacts on the atmospheric CH4 budget are not restricted to direct emissions but also include climate-driven perturbation of the natural CH4. This motivates recent efforts to place strong baseline constraints on natural CH4 sources and understand their environmental sensitivity. Oceanic emissions represent a highly uncertain term in the natural atmospheric methane (CH4) budget, due to the sparse sampling of dissolved CH4 in the marine environment.

Research in the developing of Greenhouse gas monitoring and mitigation strategies is of great interest. Numerous Greenhouse gas sensing methods have been developed over the past decade. Among these, optical-based monitoring techniques have proven ideal for remote and real-time detection of particles and gases. Therefore, this research proposes an environmental monitoring system comprising two optical systems:

  • Optical fiber SPR sensor using the Kretschmann configuration working together with a gold nano-thin film for CH4 and CO2 detection. The concentration of Greenhouse gas in liquid can be detected by depositing a selective material on metal surface (gold nano-thin film) of SPR system that can change its refractive index with the variation of the concentration of CO2 or CH4. Then, the concentration of CO2 or CH4 can be analyzed from the optical fiber SPR sensor.
  • Hollow-core polymer optical fiber specific absorption characteristics of CO2 and CH4 occurring in the mid-IR region spanning from 2 to 12 microns. The concentration of gas can be deduced from absorption measurements by knowing the absorption strength of CO2 and CH4 at specific optical frequencies. This approach eliminates functionalization procedure and necessity of regular recalibration.

Optical Society of Japan

Manabu Sato

佐藤学 Manabu Sato

Professor, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University, Japan
Title:

Super-frequency resolution using sub-bin in discrete Fourier transform and application

Manabu Sato is a Professor in Yamagata University and a Visiting Researcher in RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics.

He received B.S. from Yamagata University, M.S. in graduated school of electronics engineering from Tohoku University in 1986, worked at Hitachi Research Laboratory in Hitachi Ltd. until 1989, and joined Ishinomaki Senshu University. He returned to Research Institute of Electrical Communications in Tohoku University in 1993, and studied on the nonlinear optics using nonlinear crystals such a periodically poled LiNbO3 (PPLN) crystal to generate mid infrared waves to THz waves. He received his Ph.D. from Tohoku University in 1994. He also joined Optoelectronics Research Center in University of Southampton in UK as a Visiting Researcher from 1996 to 1997 to study on the contact method to fabricate PPLN. He moved to Yamagata University in 1998, and started studying on the optical sectional imaging such as optical coherence tomography (OCT). He studied on a synthesized light source, single shot full field OCT, and low invasive 2D probe, and applied the multi-mode fiber for the optical communications to imaging 3D OCT images of in vivo rat brain. He also joined the Tera-Photonics Research Team in RIKEN in 2019. Recently, his research fields gradually spread to signal processing to extract new information. He is a member of Optica, the Japan Society of Applied Physics, and is a director of the optical society of Japan.

We proposed a sub-bin (SB) to improve the frequency resolution in discrete Fourier transform (DFT). The SB is given by the number of reduced data and its turn. The processing method using SB and the inverse matrix and measured results are described. In the application of the SB to the optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR), the conventional bin interval is 10 divided by SB. In experiments using SD-OCT with a 0.8μm SLD, for the conventional depth resolution of 19.1μm, the depth resolution was measured at 2μm with SB. The 10 times improvement of depth resolution and the validity of our method are shown.
Wataru Watanabe

渡邉歴 Wataru Watanabe

Professor, Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Title:

Extraction of spectral features from speckle in imaging through diffusers

Wataru Watanabe is a professor at Ritsumeikan University. He received his BS, MS, and Doctor of Engineering degrees from Osaka University in 1994, 1996, and 1999, respectively. During 1999-2006, he was an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. During 2006 to 2013, he was a researcher at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). He joined Ritsumeikan University in 2013 as a professor.

His current research interests include ultrafast laser micromachining and biomedical optics.

When light propagates through a scattering medium, imaging of an object hidden behind the scattering medium is difficult. Various techniques of optical imaging through scattering media from speckle images has been proposed; however, spectral imaging through scattering media is a challenging task. In this presentation, we present spectral imaging by demonstrating the reconstruction of objects and estimation of the central wavelength of an illumination light from speckle images captured with a monochrome camera using deep learning and deconvolution method.

Optical Society of Korea

Jae-Hyeung Park

Jae-Hyeung Park

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, South Korea
Title:

Focus cue and occlusion supporting AR near eye displays

Jae-Hyeung Park is an associate professor at Seoul National University, Korea. He earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph. D. degrees from the same institution in 2000, 2002, and 2005, respectively. His career includes a senior engineer at Samsung Electronics from 2005 to 2007, followed by the faculty positions at Chungbuk National University (2007 to 2013), and Inha University (2013 to 2024). Since March 2024, he has rejoined Seoul National University. His research interests include the acquisition, processing, and display of three-dimensional information using holography and light field techniques as well as AR and VR near-eye-displays.
Optical see-through near-eye displays are crucial devices for various augmented reality (AR) applications. Despite rapid advancements in field of view, eyebox, and image quality, presenting natural 3D images without the vergence-accommodation conflict remains a challenge for AR near-eye displays. Another issue is the lack of occlusion capability, meaning virtual images are only translucent and do not occlude real objects behind them. This needs to be addressed to enhance the realism and visibility of the images. In this talk, we present our recent work on realizing optical see-through near-eye displays that support vergence-accommodation conflict-free 3D images and occlusion of real objects by the displayed virtual images.
Seung Ah Lee

Seung Ah Lee

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, South Korea
Title:

Lensless computational cameras for smart imaging

Seung Ah Lee is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Yonsei University. Prior to joining Yonsei, she was a scientist at Verily Life Sciences, a former Google [x] team (2015-18). She received her Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering at Caltech (2014) under the supervision of Prof. Changhuei Yang, and a postdoctoral training at Stanford Bioengineering (2014-15). She completed her BS (2007) and MS (2009) degree in Electrical Engineering at Seoul National University. Her current research interests include computational microscopy and imaging for sensing and clinical applications. She serves as an associate editor of Optics Express, and a co-chair of the Computational Optical Imaging and AI conference at SPIE Photonics West BIOS.
Computational imaging allows for imaging beyond the physical limits of conventional optics, and enables the efficient design of imaging systems whose hardware and software can be jointly optimized for specific imaging applications. In this talk, I will describe new cameras where algorithms replace bulky and expensive optics, which are designed and optimized for specific imaging tasks. I will first discuss our method for designing and fabricating mask-based lensless cameras with arbitrary point spread functions in a high-throughput manner, which enables mass-production and commercialization of lensless cameras. Then, I will present various single-shot multiplexed imaging capabilities of our computational cameras, including hyperspectral and full-Stokes polarization imaging. I will also demonstrate deep-learning approaches for image reconstruction, as well as hardware design and optimization, and discuss future directions of computational imaging systems.