All Things Photonics

Jasper Stackawitz, a rising senior at Pennsbury High School in Pennsylvania and recipient of the 2025 Teddi C. Laurin Scholarship, discusses his path to the world of photonics research, his work with phase change materials, and how we might reach a new generation of photonics professionals.

Garrett Cole, associate professor at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, has returned to academia after working with famed research labs and turning his own work into a successful startup. His focus today is on using semiconductor materials and processing techniques to make ultra high-performance optics for optical metrology systems. In this spotlight conversation, Cole takes us through his professional journey and shares how he hopes to inspire the next generation of photonics professionals.

Søren Friis, head of sales and business development at NLIR, breaks down the technique of MIR spectroscopy, overviewing technology, applications, and instrumentation. As a key addition to the end user’s toolkit for industrial tasks that strain many familiar methods, MIR spectroscopy may be best explained by its applications. But, Friis explains, innovative system architectures and rising trends also help tell the story.

Long thought of as a technology of the future, holographic displays are now making their way to the commercial market. In this episode, Avalon Holographics CEO Wally Haas explains how the technology works, and where his company’s NOVAC display is finding use. The conversation also offers a look to the future, where these displays can be produced at lower cost and find much broader use.

Reza Chaji, CEO of VueReal, discusses current challenges in micro-LED display technologies, and the potential of VueReal’s MicroSolid Printing platform to address them, as well as to push the technology further. Our conversation covers manufacturing, sensor integration, and the applications in mobile devices, augmented reality, medical diagnostics, and safety technologies.

Laser World of Photonics is one of the top trade shows for the laser and photonics industry. Tens of thousands of visitors from around the world will travel to Munich to take part in this year’s event. Anke Odouli is the exhibition director for the trade show. She says they’re expecting record attendance this year with nearly 1,400 exhibitors filling the halls. Odouli tells us what else we can expect to see in this year’s show, in our spotlight conversation.

Aldas Juronis, CEO of EKSPLA, discusses key parameters in the design and manufacture of industrial laser systems in this final episode before the start of Laser World of Photonics 2025. EKSPLA’s direct refrigerant cooling system highlights the company’s capabilities in delivering highly repeatable systems while pushing the bounds of performance and innovation. Additional talking points include emerging applications, application drivers, designing for OEMs, and Lithuania’s dynamic laser ecosystem.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers formed the Optics and Photonics Caucus back in 2020. At that time, the U.S., along with the rest of the world, was grappling with the pandemic and the disruptions to the supply chain it created. The legislators on that committee hoped to use this new platform to address America’s reliance on Eastern nations and boost the domestic production of photonic goods.

Editor’s Note: The team at "All Things Photonics" reached out to Morelle’s Republican counterpart, Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, to take part in the conversation. Mast and his team did not follow up with us for this podcast.

Time travel is not just theoretical, it’s proven. But that doesn’t mean we are anywhere close to a functioning time machine just yet. Professor Ron Mallett has been fascinated with the idea of time travel since he was a little boy. A year after his father passed away, he discovered a Classics Illustrated edition of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.” That comic sparked the imagination of 10-year-old Mallett, convincing him to pursue a career in science and to learn more about controlling the clocks. Decades later, he believes he has cracked the code on time travel. It just requires circular lasers and some cosmic intervention. On this episode, Mallett shares with us the science behind his theories, what it will take to traverse the past and present, and which Hollywood movies actually got time travel right.

Free space optical communication could offer high speed connectivity without the need of optical fibers. That's where groups like Attochron come in. They are actively working to develop the next generation of light waves for free space optical communications. Using short coherence length optical sources, including ultrashort pulsed lasers, they believe they have found a way to overcome the hurdles holding these systems back from hitting the mainstream. On this episode, we are joined by Tom Chaffee, founder and CEO of Attochron, Jim Olson, senior VP of sales and marketing, and Wayne H. Knox, professor of Optics at the University of Rochester and consultant at Attochron.  Some materials referenced by our guest could be found on our YouTube channel.