CLEO Pacific Rim Conference highlights latest discoveries

05 September 2018

CLEO Pacific Rim Conference highlights latest discoveries

5 September 2018

CLEO Pacific Rim Conference highlights latest discoveries

Biannual meeting showcases transformative technologies for telecommunications, medical imaging and more

Cutting-edge research on lasers and electro-optics—technologies that are powering the future of  telecommunications, biomedical imaging and discovery in many other scientific disciplines—were presented at the Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO Pacific Rim) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong SAR, from 29 July to 3 August 2018.

The conference covered all major areas in lasers and optoelectronics with over 1,000 presentations plus four plenary speakers, 20 tutorial sessions, 151 invited sessions and 12 workshops.

Plenary Vision
This year’s plenary speakers addressed diverse topics of importance to the global community.

“The conference plenary speakers clearly showcase the breadth and diversity of the technical program,” notes P. K. Alex Wai, 2018 General Co-Chair. “They demonstrated the wide scope of advancements in lasers and electro-optics. From applications in spectroscopy and LIDAR to new frontiers in measurement science and computational imaging, these talks framed the conference program with innovative concepts and inspiring research.”

Kerry J. Vahala, OSA Fellow, California Institute of Technology, USA, “High-Q Physics on-a-Chip for Integrated Optical Time Standards and Frequency Synthesizers”
Communication systems leverage the respective strengths of optics and electronics to convey high-bandwidth signals over great distances. These systems were enabled by a revolution in low-optical-loss dielectric fiber, complex integrated circuits as well as devices that link together the optical and electrical worlds. Today’s revolution is the laser frequency comb, which provides a coherent link between these two worlds. Because the link is bidirectional, performance attributes previously unique to electronics and optics can be shared. The end result has been transformative for time keeping, frequency metrology, precision spectroscopy, microwave-generation, ranging and other technologies. The latest developments in low-optical-loss dielectrics, now in the form of high-Q optical resonators, are enabling the miniaturization of frequency combs. These new `microcombs’ can be integrated with electronics and other optical components to potentially create systems on-a-chip. This presentation featured an overview of the history and elements of frequency combs as well as the physics of the new microcombs. Application of the microcombs for spectroscopy and LIDAR was discussed. Finally, efforts underway to develop integrated optical clocks and integrated optical frequency synthesizers using the microcomb element were described.

Qihuang Gong, OSA Fellow, Peking University, China, “Light Manipulating and Detecting at Micro/Nano-Scale”
Micro/nano scale light manipulating realized by using nano/micro photonic structures were described. By using photonic crystal made of the composite materials with large and fast third-order optical nonlinearity, experiments demonstrated ultrafast and low threshold all-optical switching. Based on tunable Fano resonance or PIT of metallic nanostructures, ultrafast modulations on light transmission were also demonstrated. Moreover, highly sensitive optical sensors were experimentally demonstrated using microcavity and SPP devices.

Bahram Jalali, OSA Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, “Time Stretch and its Applications in Nonlinear Dynamics, Biomedicine, and Computational Imaging”
Evaluation of non-repetitive and rare signals that occur on short timescales require fast, real-time measurements that exceed the speed, precision, and record length of digitizers. Time-stretch is an optical hardware accelerator that overcomes the speed limitations of photodetectors and electronic digitizers and enables ultrafast single-shot spectroscopy, imaging and other measurements at refresh rates reaching billions of frames per second with continuous recording spanning trillions of consecutive frames. The technology has opened a new frontier in measurement science and has led to discovery of several new scientific phenomena in nonlinear optics, laser dynamics and diagnostics of relativistic electron beams. It has also created a new class of instruments that have been integrated with artificial intelligence for sensing and biomedical diagnostics. The presentation reviewed the fundamental principles and applications of time stretch including a spin-off technology known as the phase stretch transform, a new computational imaging algorithm that is emerging as the best edge and texture feature extractor for digital images.

Susumu Noda, 2006 OSA Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prizewinner, Kyoto University, Japan, “High-Power and High-Beam Quality Photonic-Crystal Lasers”
Obtaining high-power and high-beam-quality (namely, high-brightness) semiconductor lasers is important for various applications including direct-laser processing and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for next-generation smart production and mobility. Although semiconductor lasers with various kinds of resonators have been developed, the usefulness of these lasers has been limited by their low brightness, which is more than one order of magnitude smaller than for gas and fiber/disk lasers. The key challenge in realizing high brightness is to increase the output power while maintaining a good beam quality indicated by a low M2 value. Here, we describe photonic crystal lasers with the potential to enable such high-brightness operation. Very recently, 10W output power with M2~2 has been successfully achieved. We believe that these photonic-crystal lasers will one day allow compact, affordable semiconductor lasers to rival large-scale gas and fiber/disk lasers.

Bringing together the global laser community
Attendees this year enjoyed a strong technical program and plenty of opportunities to network and sample the culture of Hong Kong. Local leadership for the conference was comprised of General Chairs P. K. Alex Wai, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong and Limin Tong, Zhejiang University, China; Organizing Committee Chairs P. T. Alan Lau and Chao Lu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and Technical Program Committee Chairs Hwa-Yaw Tam, Changyuan Yu, and Feng Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Optical Society was the Technical Co-sponsor and serves as Secretariat for the Steering Committee.

First held in 1995, CLEO Pacific Rim provides a forum for an update and review of a wide range of laser and electro-optics disciplines from device development to systems engineering and applications. Beginning this year, the conference will take place in even-numbered years.

The conference also welcomed new, permanent co-sponsors this year, the Australian Optical Society (AOS), the Chinese Optical Society (COS) and the Taiwan Photonics Society (TPS). These societies join The Optical Society (OSA), the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers/Communications Society (IEICE/CS), the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers/Electronics Society (IEICE/ES), IEEE/Photonics Society, the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP), the Optical Society of Korea (OSK) and the Korean Physical Society/Optics and Quantum Electronics Division (KPS/OQE) in supporting the conference. 

The 14th CLEO Pacific Rim Conference will be held at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, Australia, from 2 to 6 August, 2020.

About CLEO Pacific Rim (Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics)
CLEO Pacific Rim is the preeminent Pacific Rim forum reporting on the latest research and development in a wide range of laser and electro-optic disciplines, including fundamental physics of lasers and quantum optics, device development, systems engineering, and applications. For more information visit cleopacrim.org.

About The Optical Society
Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional organization for scientists, engineers, students and business leaders who fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. For more information, visit osa.org. 

Media Contact: 
mediarelations@osa.org