Space-grade radiation-hardened erbium-doped fiber developed by teams led by Hou Chaoqi and Guo Haitao at the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics has completed stable on-orbit verification for spaceborne laser communication.
Guo Haitao's team at the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Mechanics has mastered key full-chain technologies for mid- and long-wave infrared anti-resonant hollow-core fiber.
Zhejiang Daily's front page and Zhejiang TV's Zhejiang News reported that the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics was selected as one of the first group of excellence-level technology enterprise incubators named by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, with 14 incubators nationwide earning the excellence-level designation. The reports said the Russell Center is working with Fuyang Optical Fiber Enterprises to bring hollow-core fiber technology to production lines. The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics has incubated more than 70 companies, with a combined valuation exceeding 50 billion yuan.
The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, together with the Russell Center for Advanced Lightwave Science, Hengying Technology, Chuxin Optoelectronics, Hengmai Optics, Tuozhi Optoelectronics, and Yuexin Microelectronics, will attend LASER World of PHOTONICS CHINA 2026, held from March 18 to 20. The participating companies cover fields including infrared optical materials, semiconductor lasers, ultra-precision machining equipment, microstructured specialty optical fibers, volume grating devices, and high-end analog chips. This year's exhibition brings together more than 1,400 exhibitors from around the world, with an exhibition area exceeding 100,000 square meters.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China international cooperation innovation team project, led by the Russell Center for Advanced Lightwave Science at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, was launched at the institute on February 8. The project is headed by Professor Philip Russell, with Professor Wang Pengfei's team at Northeast Normal University as the collaborating institution, and runs from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2028. Focusing on hollow-core fiber, the project addresses challenges such as balancing low loss with high mode purity, controlling broadband ultraviolet pulses, and insufficient mid-infrared pulse performance, through research on optical fiber microstructure design and ultraviolet-to-mid-infrared ultrafast laser technology.
The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology has released its 2025 list of provincial-level proof-of-concept centers, including the Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Proof-of-Concept Center built by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics. The article cites Fujia Gallium's gallium oxide project and the Russell Center's progress in continuous hollow-core fiber drawing exceeding 15 kilometers as typical cases.
Hangzhou Daily reported on February 6 that Fuyang is building the Fuchun Chip City integrated circuit industry landmark, mentioning companies incubated by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, including Fujia Gallium and Jingfei Semiconductor. The report said Fujia Gallium produced China's first 6-inch gallium oxide single crystal ingot using the VB method in September 2025, the Russell Center's hollow-core fiber continuous drawing exceeded 15 kilometers, and Jingfei Semiconductor mastered laser lift-off technology for 12-inch silicon carbide wafers.
China Unicom Research Institute, the Russell Center for Advanced Lightwave Science at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, and Zhejiang Fuchunjiang Optoelectronics signed a strategic cooperation agreement on January 31, focusing on the industrialization of hollow-core fiber and covering joint demonstration projects, industry ecosystem development, and demonstration-line application systems. The original report noted that the Russell Center had previously achieved continuous hollow-core fiber drawing exceeding 15 kilometers, and the Xinkong Guanglian Fuchunjiang Optoelectronics Hollow-Core Fiber Production Base in Fuyang has completed initial validation of the drawing process.
Philip St. John Russell, a professor at the Russell Center for Advanced Lightwave Science at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, has received the 2025 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Russell proposed the concept of microstructured photonic crystal fiber in 1991, and in 1996 and 1999 led teams that produced the world's first solid-core and hollow-core microstructured fibers, respectively.
The Distributed Optical Fiber Sensing Industry Innovation Alliance held an expanded meeting of its standing directors at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics on January 21, attended by more than 40 entrepreneurs, experts and scholars. The meeting reviewed the alliance's charter and discussed its 2026 work plan, the formation of working committees and website development. Participants reported problems including fragmented industry standards, weak links between industry, academia and research, and brain drain. The original report said the alliance now has more than 200 members.
The Russell Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, together with the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, published a paper in High Power Laser Science and Engineering, demonstrating high-quality transmission and precision machining of high-power picosecond lasers using a single-ring anti-resonant hollow-core fiber.
The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics formed an exhibition consortium with the Russell Advanced Optical Wave Science Center, Hengying Technology, Yinhu Laser and Tuozhi Optoelectronics to participate in the 2025 China Optoelectronic Materials Conference, held in Shanghai on December 23-24. The exhibits covered low-loss hollow-core fibers, infrared optical materials, laser micro- and nano-processing for chip packaging materials, and volume gratings. The conference focused on advanced glass materials, optical communications and laser materials, among other areas.
The Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (HIOM), serving as a proof-of-concept center, joined the HIOM Russell Center and incubated company Hengying Technology at the "New Knowledge, New Quality: Zhejiang's Best Results" showcase and trade fair ("AI+" special session). The group highlighted innovative practices and industrialization outcomes at the intersection of artificial intelligence and optoelectronic technology. On site, HIOM presented its full-chain service capabilities for early-stage scientific and technological achievements, including technical verification, pilot-scale incubation, and industry matchmaking, and used core products from the Russell Center and Hengying Technology to illustrate innovation strengths in fiber manufacturing, optoelectronic materials, and other fields.
Guangdong Telecom, Sun Yat-sen University, and the Su Bingtian Speed Research and Training Center, among others, used integrated sensing and communications equipment and a digital twin system from Liutong Photonics, a company incubated by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, to build a digital track based on communication optical fiber and a smart transportation demonstration project around the venue. The system captures vibration signals through hundreds of meters of fiber laid beneath the track and uses AI algorithms to calculate stride length, ground contact time, and other parameters, while the traffic sensing network extracts vehicle speed, trajectories, and traffic density from urban communication fiber cables.
The Russell Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics has made progress in hollow-core microstructured fiber drawing, achieving continuous drawing lengths exceeding 15 kilometers with minimum loss below 0.3 dB/km in the telecommunications band. Related industrialization is being advanced by Xinkong Guanglian (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., established by the Russell Center, targeting high-speed interconnects for intelligent computing centers and 6G communication networks. The team said this validates the feasibility of long-distance hollow-core fiber drawing and lays the groundwork for mass production of ultra-low-loss, ultra-long-distance hollow-core microstructured fiber.
Faibo, an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute for Optics and Photonics, received the first prize of the Jiangsu Instrument and Meter Society Science and Technology Award for its project "Applied Research on Distributed Fiber-Optic Acoustic Signal Reconstruction Technology for Arbitrary Disturbances." Faibo focuses on the research, development and application of distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) systems, with its core technology originating from Nanjing University.
During Typhoon Hagiwara, Liutong Photonics used the SC-DAS-1550-FA integrated sensing and communications device to turn the submarine communication cable of the Guishan Offshore Wind Farm into a distributed acoustic sensor array, monitoring in real time ocean waves and currents, as well as the impact, vibration and deformation of wind turbine foundations, towers and submarine cables.
The 'Proof-of-Concept Center for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials' built by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics has been selected for Zhejiang Province's first batch of 22 proof-of-concept centers. The center has established a public service platform for laser and optical characterization, a shared semiconductor process platform in Fuyang District, and the Russell Advanced Optical Wave Science Center. The characterization platform is equipped with more than 30 instruments for optical, electrical and thermal testing. The center will focus on four major fields: optoelectronic functional materials, semiconductor materials, specialty optical fiber materials, and optoelectronic equipment, advancing proof-of-concept validation and industrialization of research results.
The Russell Advanced Lightwave Science Center at the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, together with the Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study of UCAS, the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics, and IRFIBER (Ningbo) Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., published a paper in Optica on delivering near-watt, hundred-femtosecond mid-infrared pulses in the 2.8 µm band through a 5 m-long hollow-core photonic crystal fiber with a single-core, eight-ring structure. After evacuation, overall efficiency exceeded 70%, the output was a near-diffraction-limited Gaussian spot, and the fundamental-mode energy fraction exceeded 95%.
Why we recommend it: The paper gives efficiency, pulse duration, peak power and fundamental-mode fraction, and compares the fiber with free-space optics and solid-core fluoride fiber, making it easier to judge the applicability of hollow-core fiber to mid-infrared ultrafast delivery.
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Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics · Recent HighlightsOptics industryAI score1313
On April 27, six students from Yongxing Middle School visited the Hangzhou Institute of Optics, Mechanics and Physics for a social practice program. They toured the exhibition hall to see physical optoelectronic achievements, observed the research environment and advanced equipment at the Luosu Center, and learned about next-generation optical fibers with ultra-low loss and ultra-wide bandwidth. Teacher Luo Zhuozhao gave a popular science class on "Optical Fiber Communications," covering the development of communications, 5G, transoceanic communication networks, quantum optical fiber communications and new optical fiber materials, and answered students' questions during the Q&A session.