Plenary Speakers

Sanna Yliniemi (D. Sc.), Technology Marketing Manager, Dispelix Oy, Espoo, Southern Finland

Topic: “Waveguide technology for XR glasses that look and feel like ordinary glasses“

Dispelix core technology is founded on pioneering work in the design and fabrication of surface relief diffraction gratings on single-layer waveguide substrates. Our technology platform spans from waveguide design and mastering to nanomanufacturing and metrology for mass production. Dispelix uses its self-developed, in-house software for designing waveguides. Our waveguide design software tools and team are globally unmatched.

Our algorithms simulate the behavior of the electromagnetic field in grating structures and in complete waveguides. We master both field-based and ray-optics algorithms to simulate both coherent and incoherent light. From the simulated outgoing field, our design software computes the quantities that characterize the optical performance of a waveguide. The software has algorithms and features to carry out the optimization of sophisticated waveguide designs. Our optimization capabilities include traditional optimization algorithms and applications of artificial intelligence. 
The optics simulation and the optimization in a large design space are computationally intensive problems. Therefore, part of our work is focused on high performance computing to execute simulations in a sufficiently short time.

Dr. Clara J. Saraceno, Professor in Photonics and Ultrafast Laser Science, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Clara Saraceno was born in 1983 in Argentina.  In 2007 she completed a Diploma in Engineering and an MSc at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School, Paris. She completed a PhD in Physics at ETH Zürich in 2012 in the group of Prof. Ursula Keller, where she carried out research on ultrafast disk lasers. She received the ETH Medal for her PhD thesis and the European Physical Society (Quantum Electronics and Optics Division) thesis prize in applied aspects in 2013.  From 2013-2014, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Neuchatel and ETH Zürich, followed by a postdoc position from 2015 – 2016 at ETH Zürich. In 2016, she received a Sofja Kovalevskaja Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and became Associate Professor of Photonics and Ultrafast Science in the Electrical Engineering Faculty at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. In 2018 she received an ERC Starting Grant and is a Fellow of Optica in the class of 2022. Since 2020, she is a full professor at the Ruhr University in Bochum and her current main research topics of her group include high-power ultrafast lasers and Terahertz science and technology.

Topic: “Advanced ultrafast laser technology for Terahertz light and more”

We will review latest advances in ultrafast laser technology and how it has supported advances the Terahertz part of the electromagnetic spectrum. We will discuss potential areas of application where these sources can open new doors, fields that can be revisited thanks to source advances, and future directions – both in source development and in the Terahertz field.

Emiliano Descrovi, Associate Professor in Physics at the Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

He obtained his master degree in Physics from the University of Torino in 1999 and the PhD in Microtechnique from the Université de Neuchatel, Switzerland, in 2005. His research interests falls in the domain of dielectric nanophotonics and light-responsive polymer photonics, targeting novel tunable devices controlled by light. In the past years, he focused on optical phenomena involving surface modes on planar dielectric multilayers. In 2020 he joined the European Optical Society (EOS) board and presently serves as President-Elect since September 2022.

Topic: “Light-responsive architectures from nano to macro”

In recent years, light-responsive polymers have attracted increasing attention due to their potential applications in areas such as active micro-structured surfaces, tunable nano-optics, soft robotics and biology. In this talk, I will present some recent results of using light-responsive architectures in optics-related applications. Starting from nanophotonic devices, a hybrid dielectric-polymeric cavity resonator for surface waves will be illustrated, wherein spectral tunability is reached through the reversible control of optical anisotropies. Growing up with the structure size, I will introduce smart micro-patterned light-responsive surfaces whose topographic features can be reversibly modified. This concept is applied for controlling surface wettability and drive cellular growth of living tumoral cells and tissues. Finally, a new type of light-responsive nanocomposite is presented, whose mechanical deformation is fully driven by the polarization of an incident radiation. A millimeter-sized membrane actuator made of this amorphous material is demonstrated to be actuatable in any arbitrary direction, as ruled by the polarization state of the illumination.