East China Normal University, 

China

Shaanxi Normal University, 

China

Xi 'an Institute of Optics and 

Precision Mechanics, CAS, 

China

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Max Born Institute, Germany

California Institute of 

Technology, USA

Shanghai Jiao Tong University,

 China

Ya Cheng

East China Normal University, China

Title：Thin Film Lithium Niobate Electro-Optic Devices and Ultralarge-Scale Photonic Integration

ABSTRACT

The recent advancement in thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic integration technology has been rapid, driven by profound physical, material, and technological factors. Single crystal thin film lithium niobate is particularly noteworthy for offering the most comprehensive performance solution to date, addressing long-term challenges in low transmission loss, high-density integration, and low modulation power consumption within the realm of photonic integrated circuits (PICs). To realize large-scale PICs, we develop photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching (PLACE) and apply it for fabricating PICs on TFLN. We then demonstrate various kinds of PICs ranging from low-loss optical delay lines and photonic neural network to EO tunable lasers and high-power waveguide amplifiers. Significant improvements have been achieved with respect to the key parameters/performances of TFLN photonics devices, such as modulation bandwidth, power consumption, propagation loss, active and passive functionalities, and scale of integration.

Yu Fang

Shaanxi Normal University, China

Title：Sensors-Driven Innovation in Fluorescent Materials

ABSTRACT

Film-based Fluorescent Sensors (FFSs) are a critical solution for developing high-performance sensors capable of detecting hazardous, toxic, and harmful chemicals, biological substances, radioactive materials, as well as strain, stress, humidity, and other parameters. By examining key factors such as mass transfer, energy transfer, microenvironment effects, sensing unit utilization efficiency, the photochemical stability of sensing materials, and moisture/dust barrier materials—all of which significantly influence FFS performance—we highlight the essential role of innovation in sensing and barrier materials. This includes advancements in sensing unit design and synthesis, modulation of excited-state processes, optimization of adlayer structures, and internal structural tuning of barrier materials. Additionally, we explore innovations in sensor hardware architecture and improvements in detection equipment. Based on these insights, we assess the future development prospects and major challenges for FFSs.

For details, see our review papers published recently: (1) Yan Luo, Xiaoyan Liu, Yu Fang. Acc. Mater. Res. 2025, 6, 5, 600; (2) Rongrong Huang, Taihong Liu, Haonan Peng, Jing Liu, Xiaogang Liu, Liping Ding, Yu Fang. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2024, 53, 6960.

Yuxi Fu

Xi 'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, CAS, China

Title：Intense attosecond pulse generation from visible to soft x-rays

ABSTRACT

Since the first demonstration of attosecond pulse generation and characterization at the beginning of this century, attosecond science has attracted a lot of attention due to its significant potential applications in revealing dynamics of electrons. Up to now, isolated attosecond pulses can be generated by high-order harmonic generation (HHG), free electron laser (FEL) and laser driven plasma emission. Attosecond facilities have also been constructed or proposed in different countries. In this presentation, I will show our work on generating attosecond pulses in the soft x-ray, XUV and visible regions, with potential maximum peak power reaches GW and even TW-class, with a table-top scale. These high-energy isolated attosecond pulses will be significant for high resolution spatial-temporal imaging, ultrafast dynamics capturing of electrons, and strong attosecond laser field physics.

Baohua Jia

RMIT University, Australia

Title：Ultrafast nanoprinting for precision manufacturing

ABSTRACT

This presentation mainly introduces the interaction between 3D nanoprinting and various materials at the atomic scale. Describe the precise and unparalleled manipulation of materials by nanoprinting at the spatial, temporal, and atomic scales. In particular, the application status and broad prospects of optical nanoprinting and two-dimensional photonic integrated devices are introduced in detail. The report will also share the future development directions of ultrafast optical nanoprinting and angstrom material devices, and the major challenges faced. The developed scalable graphene metamaterials show attractive optical and thermal properties. Through patterning with advanced laser nanoprinting technique, functional photonic devices with ultrathin, light weight and flexible nature have been demonstrated promising exciting opportunities for integrated photonics.

BIOGRAPHY

Distinguished Professor Baohua Jia is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Technologies (FTSE), and Future Fellow at RMIT University, Australia. Before joining RMIT University in 2022, Baohua was a tenured professor at Swinburne University of Technology and Founding Director of Centre for Translational Atomaterials. Professor Jia is a Fellow of Optica (previously known as the Optical Society of America), and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IMO3). Since 2019, Prof. Jia has served as a Colleague of Expert for the Australian Research Council. Professor Jia's research focuses on the design and optical characterization of novel nanostructures and nanomaterials, fabrication, and efficient conversion and storage of light energy. As a leading Chief Investigator, Professor Jia received a total of more than $90 million in research funding support. Professor Jia has published more than 350 journal papers with an h-index of 84 (Google Scholar) and developed over 20 invention patents and patent applications. Based on Professor Jia's outstanding contributions in scientific research, she has won many awards, including the 2024 Vice Chancellor Research Award, 2017 finalist of the Australian Prime Minister's Science Award, the Vice Chancellor's Industrial Achievement Award in 2011, 2016, and 2018, 2013, Young Science Leader Award, 2012 UNESCO L'Oréal Australia New Zealand Women in Science Award.

Mauro Nisoli

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Title：Decoding the Earliest Moments of Charge Transfer in Molecules with Attosecond EUV and UV Pulses

ABSTRACT

Photoinduced charge transfer (CT) is a fundamental process underpinning a wide range of phenomena in both natural and engineered systems. Despite significant advancements in ultrafast spectroscopy, the elementary mechanisms governing the initial stages of CT remain incompletely understood. A major challenge lies in capturing the complex coupling between electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom that emerges immediately after photoexcitation. Elucidating these ultrafast dynamics is critical not only for advancing fundamental knowledge but also for enabling innovation in optoelectronic and molecular electronic technologies. Ultrafast CT can be initiated either by attosecond extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pulses, which induce photoionization and permit tracking of electronic motion in molecular ions, or by few-cycle ultraviolet (UV) pulses, which maintain the molecule in a neutral state. Achieving femtosecond or sub-femtosecond resolution in the latter case requires UV pulses confined to only a few optical cycles.

This work employs both approaches in a complementary fashion. Using attosecond EUV-IR photoion spectroscopy, we examine a model donor–acceptor system to resolve the structural dependence of charge dynamics. Our findings reveal that CT does not proceed via continuous electron flow but initiates with a prompt redistribution of electron density, characterized by oscillatory behavior linked to nuclear motion. Additionally, we present a cutting-edge beamline designed for time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, featuring sub-3 fs tunable UV pump pulses and attosecond probe pulses. This setup enables high-resolution studies of ultrafast electronic processes, including nonadiabatic transitions and vibronic coupling, providing unprecedented insight into the interplay between electronic structure and nuclear rearrangements.

BIOGRAPHY

Mauro Nisoli is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano since 2011. He leads the Attosecond Research Center within the Department of Physics of Politecnico and serves as co-director of the international school The Frontiers of Attosecond and Ultrafast X-ray Science. He is the author of over 230 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and has delivered numerous invited talks and tutorials at leading international conferences and schools. He was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant in 2009 (Electron-scale dynamics in chemistry, ELYCHE) and an ERC Synergy Grant in 2020 (The Ultimate Time Scale in Organic Molecular Opto-Electronics, the Attosecond, TOMATTO). In 2019, he was named OSA Fellow for his innovative contributions to attosecond science and technology, particularly for pioneering applications of attosecond pulses to molecular systems.

He has made groundbreaking contributions to attosecond science, especially in ultrafast electron dynamics in molecules and condensed matter. He co-invented the hollow-fiber compression technique, which enables few-cycle laser pulses at millijoule energies, now a global standard for generating isolated attosecond pulses. In 2006, his group achieved the first complete temporal characterization of isolated attosecond pulses, and in 2010 he developed an advanced temporal gating technique to produce high-energy isolated attosecond pulses. A pioneer in attochemistry, Nisoli performed the first attosecond pump-probe experiment on H2 and D2 in 2010. In 2014, he extended these studies to amino acids, achieving the first experimental observation of charge migration in complex molecules. Most recently, in 2024, he investigated the earliest stages of charge transfer in donor–acceptor systems, uncovering the fundamental coupling between ultrafast electronic redistribution and structural dynamics.

Marc Vrakking

Max Born Institute, Germany

Title：Control of Attosecond Entanglement and Coherence

ABSTRACT

Attosecond pulses produced using high-harmonic generation (HHG) have photon energies in the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) and soft x-ray regime. As such, these pulses are ionizing radiation for any sample (atomic, molecular, liquid, solid) placed in their path. In attosecond pump-probe experiments, the time-resolved dynamics under investigation is commonly associated with either the photoelectrons (e.g. in measurements of photoionization time delays) or located within the ions (e.g. in observations of so-called “charge migration”). However, the observable dynamics may be compromised by quantum entanglement between the ions and photoelectrons.

We have investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, the role of ion-photoelectron entanglement in attosecond pump-probe probe scenarios relying on the creation of vibrational, respectively electronic coherence in H2+ ions that are produced via attosecond ionization of H2. In the former experiments, we could show that the degree of vibrational coherence in H2+ ions produced by a few-femtosecond long attosecond pulse train (APT) can be controlled by using a pair of APTs and varying their relative time-delay [1-3]. In the latter experiments, we could show that the degree of electronic coherence in H2+ ions produced by a pair of isolated attosecond pulses (IAPs), could similarly be controlled by varying their relative delay [4]. Demonstrating the sensitivity of electronic coherences to quantum entanglement is particularly significant, since electronic coherences underlie the observation of time-dependent electron motion, the raison d’être of attosecond science.

BIOGRAPHY

Prof. Marc Vrakking completed his Phd at the University of California at Berkeley in 1992. After postdoc positions at the National Research Council (Ottawa) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, he led a scientific group at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF) in Amsterdam from 1997 to 2011. While at AMOLF, he initiated a research program focusing on the use of ultrashort (femtosecond and attosecond) extreme-ultra-violet (XUV) and X-ray laser pulses in studies of time-resolved atomic and molecular dynamics. In March 2010 he was appointed as director at the Max-Born Institute (MBI) in Berlin, and as a professor of physics at the Freie Universität Berlin. At MBI, Marc Vrakking is the head of Division A (“Attosecond Science”), and leads a team of researchers that are both further developing and applying techniques to study electron dynamics on attosecond timescales as well as nuclear dynamics on femtosecond timescales.

Lihong Wang

California Institute of Technology, USA

Title：Photoacoustic, Light-Speed, and Quantum Imaging

ABSTRACT

We developed photoacoustic tomography (PAT) for deep-tissue imaging, offering in vivo functional, metabolic, molecular, and histologic imaging from organelles to entire organisms. PAT combines optical and ultrasonic waves, overcoming the optical diffusion limit (~1 mm) with centimeter-scale deep penetration, high ultrasonic resolution, and optical contrast. Applications include early cancer detection and brain imaging.

Additionally, we developed light-speed compressed ultrafast photography (CUP), capable of capturing the fastest phenomena, such as light propagation, in real time. CUP, with a single exposure, captures transient events on femtosecond scales. CUP can be paired with various front optics, from microscopes to telescopes, facilitating diverse applications in fundamental and applied sciences, including biology and cosmophysics.

Further, our research extends to quantum entanglement for imaging. Quantum imaging utilizing Heisenberg scaling enhances spatial resolution linearly with the number of quanta, outperforming the standard quantum scaling’s square-root improvement.

BIOGRAPHY

Lihong Wang is Bren Professor of Medical and Electrical Engineering at Caltech. Published 615 journal articles (h-index = 165, citations = 117K, #1 most cited in optics according to Stanford/Elsevier). Delivered 630 keynote/plenary/invited talks. Published the first functional photoacoustic CT, 3D photoacoustic microscopy, and light-speed compressed ultrafast photography (the world’s fastest camera). Served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biomedical Optics. Received Goodman Book Award; NIH Outstanding Investigator, NIH Director’s Transformative Research, and NIH Director’s Pioneer Awards; Optica Mees Medal and Feld Award; IEEE Technical Achievement and Biomedical Engineering Awards; SPIE Chance Award; IPPA Senior Prize; honorary doctorate from Lund University, Sweden. Inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.

Dongping Zhong

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Title：Ultrafast dynamics of complex systems in biology and materials

ABSTRACT

The dynamics of complex system in biology and materials usually contain many elementary processes and deciphering their underlying mechanisms is difficult and challenging. To resolve their detailed dynamic evolution and determine their actual timescales, we need to combine various state-of-the-art methods to dissect those processes. Here, we use femtosecond spectroscopy, molecular biology and ultrafast electron microscopy to map out their entire dynamics. We report several complex systems in biology and materials such as DNA repair by photoenzyme, dimer dissociation of photoreceptor UVR8 and nanomaterial dynamics. These results reveal their significant complexity and strongly suggest that the high spatiotemporal resoliution is a necessity to completely reveal their dynamics and elucidate the molecular mechanisms at the most fundamental level.

BIOGRAPHY

Dongping Zhong received his B.S. in laser physics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from California Institute of Technology in 1999 under the late Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail. For his Ph.D. work, Dr. Zhong received the Herbert Newby McCoy Award and the Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize from Caltech. He continued his postdoctoral research in the same group with focus on protein dynamics. In 2002, he joined The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor and was promptly promoted as Robert Smith Professor of Physics and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is the Packard Fellow, Sloan Fellow, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Guggenheim Fellow, APS Fellow, AAAS Fellow, as well as the recipient of the NSF CAREER award and the Outstanding Young Research award from the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers. He was the international Jury member in physical science for the L’Oréal-UNESCO awards for“Women in Science.”His early work on femtochemistry and recent work on the enzyme dynamics have been cited in the press release and Noble lecture of two Nobel Prizes (1999 and 2015). Recently, he moved to China and now is a chair professor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests focus on protein and nanomaterials dynamics using ultrafast photons and electrons.