Optical sensors, spectral detection and LiDAR.
SIOM has proposed a configurational entropy engineering strategy that enables ultra-broadband luminescence in bismuth-doped glass fiber.
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Hesai sold about 1.62 million LiDAR units in 2025, with revenue of RMB 3.028 billion and its first full year of GAAP profitability.
A team led by researcher Li Shaojuan at the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics has developed a vision-olfaction dual-modal neuromorphic device based on a MoS2/SnS2 floating-gate heterostructure. The device responds to both optical and gas signals and fuses them at the device level. The results were published in Advanced Materials. The device has an active area of 148 µm² and static power consumption of 3.4 µW. With the optical modality introduced, classification accuracy for 12 gases rose from 52.24% to 98.27%, while recognition accuracy for 51 gas mixtures reached 89.32%.
O-Film and Luming Photonics are deepening their collaboration to scale solid-state LiDAR deployment based on the ADS6311 SPAD chip.
Six companies incubated by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics - Kaisis Technology, Guangzhiyun, Guangzai Technology, Aijie Photonics, Bangqizhou, and Gaoxi Thermal - were selected for the proposed first batch of Hangzhou's "Promising Seedlings" enterprises. Kaisis Technology was also selected for the proposed 2025 Hangzhou "New Eaglet" enterprise list. The selected companies cover areas including cold atom clocks, optical intelligent algorithms, LiDAR, silicon-based optoelectronic chips, and metasurface optical devices.
Faibo, an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, was named among China's Top 10 Optical Industry Technologies of 2025 (optics category) for its distributed fiber-optic acoustic field sensing technology based on multi-domain multiplexing. The competition received 128 entries, and the awards ceremony was held May 18 at the China Optics Valley Science and Technology Convention Center. The technology targets distributed monitoring in power grids, energy and mining, rail transit, oil and gas pipelines, and smart cities.
A team led by Academician Wang Lijun at the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, together with Zheng Chuantao's team at Jilin University, published a paper in Optics and Laser Technology proposing an 8-channel complex-coupled DFB semiconductor laser array based on high-order surface gratings and periodic current injection, requiring neither epitaxial regrowth nor nanoscale lithography.
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.
Guangzai Technology, an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, collaborated with the University of Cambridge, Southeast University and others to publish a paper in Sustainable Cities and Society, proposing SCE-Model, a spatiotemporal carbon emission model optimized by machine learning and validated by LiDAR. The model output is highly consistent with coherent differential absorption LiDAR observations (R² = 0.79; ±5 ppm), enabling hourly, block-level carbon emission mapping.
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.
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 research project "Study of High-Precision, High-Sensitivity Wind Field Measurement Technology Based on Optical Frequency Comb Calibration," completed by Professor Xia Haiyun, chief scientist and founder of Guangzai Technology, won second prize in the 2024 National Defense Science and Technology Progress Award, marking a major breakthrough for Guangzai Technology in national defense science and technology honors. The award, announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is the highest distinction in the national defense science and technology field. Guangzai Technology is a high-tech LiDAR company focused on the R&D and manufacturing of intelligent LiDAR systems for ground-based, airborne, shipborne, and spaceborne platforms.
In the five years since it began operations, the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics has incubated more than 60 optoelectronic 'hard tech' companies, over 20 of which have secured follow-on financing, drawing more than 2.5 billion yuan in external capital in total. Its full-chain 'equipment + funding + talent' model, backed by a modular and standardized service system, helps scientists cross the 'valley of death' in technology commercialization. The incubated companies span atmospheric laser remote sensing, gallium oxide single crystals, cold atom clocks and other fields. The operating model was reported by Daily Business News and reposted and endorsed by the Hangzhou Municipal Government and several other government new media platforms.
The Atmospheric Multi-Parameter Doppler LiDAR developed by a team led by Professor Xia Haiyun, founder of Hangzhou Guangzai Technology Co., Ltd., an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, and dean of the School of Atmospheric Physics at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, won the Gold Award on the China Optoelectronic Instrument Brand List at the third Jin Sui Awards. The final review selected 49 winning projects, including 14 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze awards. Guangzai Technology focuses on single-photon, coherent, femtosecond, superconducting and microwave photonics technologies, developing intelligent remote sensing LiDAR for ground-based, airborne and spaceborne platforms.