Ultrafast-Laser Direct Fabrication of Freeform Optics and Integrated Photonics

Ultrafast lasers are transforming how optical and photonic systems are designed, fabricated, and integrated. By enabling non-contact, waste-free, and highly localized material modification, ultrafast laser processing offers a fundamentally different approach from conventional optical manufacturing methods such as diamond turning, magnetorheological finishing, and ion-beam figuring, which produce tool wearing and undesired mid-spatial-frequency ripples.

In this talk, Qiao presents ultrafast-laser direct fabrication as a unified platform for shaping and finishing freeform optics while enabling three-dimensional integrated photonics. She will highlight demonstrations of nanometer-level precision in freeform optical surfaces achieved through deterministic laser-based processing, illustrating how complex geometries and high surface quality can be realized without mechanical contact or specialized tooling.

The talk will also highlight recent advances in monolithic integration, including the direct inscription of functional waveguide lasers across dissimilar optical materials that are bonded using the same femtosecond laser. These capabilities, direct figuring, bonding, and photonic writing within a single laser-processing framework, establish ultrafast lasers as a promising pathway toward digitally driven fabrication and seamless integration of next-generation optical and photonic systems.

About the presenter
Jie Qiao, Ph.D., is director of the advanced optical fabrication, instrumentation, and metrology laboratory in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at Rochester Institute of Technology. She leads a team of Ph.D. students advancing ultrafast-laser–enabled direct fabrication of precision optics and integrated photonics.

Her research focuses on femtosecond-laser figuring and polishing of high-precision optical surfaces, three-dimensional direct laser writing of waveguide lasers and photonic devices, and laser welding of dissimilar optical materials.

Prof. Qiao is a Fellow of Optica and previously served as a Fulbright Scholar to France and as an associate editor of Optics Express. She currently serves as program chair for the 27th International Symposium on Laser Precision Microfabrication (LPM 2026).