Special Symposia

CLEO

The premier international forum for scientific and technical optics.

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Explore the Schedule at a Glance to see the full agenda for CLEO 2026, including all sessions, courses, and events happening throughout the week.

Special Symposia

Click each card to view session details, champions, and invited presentations.

Integrated Photonics Control Light with Ultrasound in Integrated Acousto-Optic and Optomechanical Systems Mo Li (University of Washington, USA); Linbo Shao (Virginia Tech, USA) Champion: Gabrielle Thomas ⌄
Birgit Stiller
Leibniz University Hannover, MPI Science of Light • Germany
Strong coupling and neuromorphic structures in waveguide optoacoustics
Max Drimmer
ETH • Switzerland
Brillouin cavity optomechanics for microwave to optical transduction
Hong Tang
Yale University • USA
sub-THz electromechanics and optomechanics
Matt Eichenfield
University of Colorado Boulder • USA
Integrated Acoustoelectric Microwave Frequency Phonon Lasers, Amplifiers, and Switches for Advanced Acousto-Optics
Ben Eggleton
University of Sydney • Australia
Heterogeneous integration for Brillouin microwave photonics
Sunil Bhave
Purdue University • USA
mm-sized PiezoMEMS transducers for meter-scale waveguide optomechanical interactions
Ruochen Lu
University of Texas at Austin • USA
Thin-Film Piezoelectric Acoustic Devices at mmWave Frequencies and Their Applications in Integrated Optics
Xiankai Sun
Chinese University of Hong Kong • China
Acousto-optic modulation on lithium niobate and lithium tantalate integrated platforms
Data Centers & AI Optical Technologies for Data Centers: From Communications to Computing Myoung-Gyun Suh (NTT Research, USA); Kiyoul Yang (Harvard University, USA); Peter McMahon (Cornell University, USA) Champion: Yasutomo Ota ⌄
John Bowers
UCSB • USA
Quantum Dot Laser Based Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits
Anna Tauke-Pedretti
DARPA • USA
DARPA’s view of the photonic integrated circuit ecosystem
Ryohei Urata
Google • USA
Optical interconnect, switching, and beyond: Key technologies for AI/ML infrastructure
Paul Prucnal
Princeton University • USA
Neuromorphic Photonics
Zhizhen Zhong
MIT • USA
Emerging Photonic Memory-to-Compute Interconnect for Generative AI Systems
Ramana Murty
Broadcom • USA
VCSELs for NPO
Vivek Raghunathan
Xscape Photonics • USA
Scaling Up AI with WDM Optics
Anna Tatarczak
Coherent • USA
Optical Technologies for the Next Generation Data Centers
Deep-UV Deep-UV Photonics: Materials, Devices, and Applications Nicolas Volet (Aarhus University, Denmark); Muhammad Ajmal Khan (RIKEN, Japan); Frédéric Grillot (Université Laval, Canada) Champion: Stephan Reitzenstein ⌄
Sonia M. García Blanco
University of Twente • The Netherlands
Broadband and UV compatible Al2O3 integrated photonics platform
Anna Kafar
Institute of High Pressure Physics PAS • Poland
InAlGaN laser diodes for next-generation deep-UV and quantum photonics
Katrin Paschke
FBH • Germany
Design of diode laser-based frequency-converted deep-UV light sources with selectable wavelengths
Eric J. Stanton
EMode Photonix • USA
Integrated Nonlinear Photonics for Compact UV and Far-UVC Sources
Joachim Ciers
Chalmers University of Technology • Sweden
Deep-UV surface-emitting lasers
Debdeep Jena
Cornell University • USA
Deep-UV photonic devices enabled by distributed polarization doping
Shashwat Rathkanthiwar
Lit Thinking • USA
Far-UVC LEDs using pseudomorphic AlGaN
Gabriel Mennerat
CEA & Cristal Laser • France
Scalable Fabrication of High-Quality LBO Crystals for Deep-UV Frequency Conversion
High-Energy Lasers Terawatt to Petawatt Lasers for X-ray Generation, Particle Acceleration and Fusion Michael Hemmer (University of Colorado Boulder, USA); Olivier Chalus (Thales, France) Champion: Katia Shtyrkova ⌄
Patrick Rambo
Sandia National Labs • USA
The Z-Backlighter Laser Facility: Lasers, Applications, and Lessons Learned
Yohann Ayoul
LULI-APOLLON • France
Apollon Upgrade Towards a Multi-beam Platform
YanYing Zhao
Peking University • China
Advances in 2PW Laser Systems and Applications at Peking University
Felicie Albert
LLNL NIF • USA
The Jupiter Laser Facility: a kilojoule-class laser platform for high energy density and fusion energy sciences
Manuel Hegelich
TAU Systems Inc • USA
Marius Schollmeier
MARVEL Fusion GmbH • Germany
First experimental evaluation of a 10-PW-driven Nano Accelerator at ELI-NP
John Petersen
IMEC • Belgium
High-Harmonic Generation and an Emerging Inflection Point in Semiconductor Metrology
Vincent Wanie
DESY • Germany
Overdriven high-harmonic generation through gas confinement at sub-millimeter lengths
Heterogeneous Integration Heterogeneous Integration of UV to NIR Photonics for Emerging Applications Chao Shen (Fudan University, China); Haiding Sun (USTC, China); Yating Wan (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) Champion: Garrett Cole ⌄
Yuji Zhao
Rice University, USA
UV-visible Spectrum Integrated Photonics on Wide and Ultrawide Bandgap Semiconductor Platforms
Joyce Poon
University of Toronto, Canada
Heterogeneous VIS to NIR Laser Integration on Silicon Photonic Circuits for Neurotech and Compute Networks
Jonathan Klamkin
Aeluma, USA
Large-Scale III-V on Silicon Heterogeneous Integration
Changjian Guo
South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, China
High-Performance Visible Light Modulators Based on Thin-Film Lithium Tantalate
Xiao Gong
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Mateus Corato-Zanarella
TOPTICA Photonics Inc., USA
Photonic Integrated Circuit-Based Laser Systems For Quantum Optical Technologies And Beyond
Vitaly Zubialevich
Tyndall National Institute, Ireland
Advanced Micro-LED Architectures for Emerging Photonic Applications
Materials Platform Barium Titanate: The Next-Generation Materials Platform for Optical Modulators Dan Wasserman (University of Texas, USA); Agham Posadas (La Luce Cristallina, USA); Alex Demkov (University of Texas, USA) Champion: Sahin Ozdemir ⌄
Long-Qing Chen
Penn State University, USA
Thermodynamics and Phase-Field Model of Electro-Optic Effects in BaTiO₃
Xiaoqing Pan
University of California, Irvine, USA
Probing the domain structure and phonon dynamics of BaTiO3₃
Paul Seidler
IBM Zurich
Bidirectional Microwave-Optical Conversion with an Integrated Soft-Ferroelectric Barium Titanate Transducer
Mark Thompson
PsiQuantum
Felix Eltes
Lumiphase AG
Performance, Reliability, & Manufacturability of a 200mm BTO-Silicon Photonics Platform
Gaurav Bahl
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Progress on Low-Loss Monolithic BaTiO₃ Integrated Photonics
Peng Yao
Phase Sensitive Innovations, Inc.
Ultra-Low V·L Optical Modulator
Sebastian Schmitt
Fraunhofer IOF
Polarization Entangling Crystals: On-Chip Generation of Photonic Bell States in Barium Titanate
Nonlinear Waves Nonlinear Beam Propagation in Optics and Plasmas: In Memory of Akira Hasegawa Stefan Wabnitz (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy); Goery Genty (Tampere University, Finland); Mario Ferraro (University of Calabria, Italy) Champion: Jifeng Liu ⌄
Caterina Riconda
Sorbonne University, France
Plasma Optics: New Trends and Possibilities
Masataka Nakazawa
Tohoku University, Japan
Optical Fiber Communications and Computing
John Travers
Heriot-Watt University, UK
Extreme Guided-Wave Nonlinear Optics
Begüm Kabagöz
MIT, USA
Soliton Dynamics and Ultrafast Frequency Generation in Step-Index Multimode Optical Fibers
Arnaud Couairon
Institut Fresnel / CPhT, France
Spatiotemporal Optical Vortices in Kerr Media
Fetah Benabid
CNRS, France
Plasma Jets from Hollow-Core Optical Fibers
Akihiro Maruta
Osaka University, Japan
Solitons in Optical Fiber Communication Systems
Govind Agrawal
Rochester University, USA
Hasegawas Contributions to Solitons and Optical Communications/Split-step Fourier Method: Its History and Usefulness/ The Past and Future of Nonlinear Fiber Optics
Atomic Sensors Quantum Devices with Hot Rydberg Atoms Nikunjkumar Prajapati; Irina Novikova; Robert Wyllie ⌄
Aly Artusio-Glimpse
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder
Microfabricated vapor cells for Rydberg sensors: materials, surfaces, and RF considerations
Michal Parniak
University of Warsaw
Rydberg upconversion radiometry in the mm-wave regime
Tomas F. Gallagher
University of Virginia
Thermal Rydberg atoms at work
Jeremy Glick
Devcom Army Research Laboratory
Warm atom Rydberg sensing with reduced Doppler effects
Georg Raithel
University of Michigan
Applications of Rydberg-atom field sensors in fundamental science and in real life
David La Mantia
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Rydberg Electrometry of Very High Frequencies and Below
Stephanie M. Bohaichuk
Quantum Vally Ideas Lab
Recent Advances in Radio Frequency Sensing with Rydberg Atom-based Electrometry
Silicon Color Centers Silicon Color Centers Carlos Errando Herranz (TU Delft, The Netherlands); Stefano Paesani (Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark) Champion: Paulina Kuo ⌄
Moritz Brehm
Johannes Kepler University • Austria
Self-assembled single color centers in silicon based on epitaxy
Geoffroy Hautier
Rice University • USA
First principles understanding and prediction of quantum defects in silicon
Chee Wei Wong
UCLA • USA
Photonic Integrated Circuit-Based Laser Systems For Quantum Optical Technologies And Beyond
Georgy Astakhov
Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf
Title TBA
Songtao Chen
Rice University • USA
Cavity-coupled telecom spin-photon interfaces in silicon
XueYue Zhang
Columbia University • USA
Spin-photon interface of T centers
Gary Wolfowicz
Photonic Inc.
Distributed Quantum Computing in Silicon
Novel Fibers Novel Optical Fibers: Technological Advances and Emerging Applications Nazanin Hoghooghi; Cristian Antonelli; Mikael Mazur ⌄
Lars Søgaard Rishøj
Denmark Technical University • Denmark
Nonlinear Interactions in Higher-Order Fiber Modes
Timothy Bate
University of Central Florida • USA
Mode Field Adapters for High Power Delivery in Anti-resonant Hollow-core Fibers
Austin Taranta
University of Southampton • UK
Recent Developments in Hollow Core Fibers for Fiber-Optic Gyroscopes
Davide Bacco
University of Florence • Italy
Quantum communications in multicore fibers
Kazuhide Nakajima
NTT • Japan
Recent progress in multi-core fiber technology and its standard
Sergio G. Leon-Saval
The University of Sydney • Australia
Specialty Astrophotonic Fibers - a new approach for observational astronomy
Wei Ding
Jinan University • China
Specialty Characterizations for Advanced Anti-Resonant Hollow-Core Fibers
Pierpaolo Boffi
Politecnico di Milano • Italy
Multi-Core Fibers as Effective Sensors for Urban Environments