Visible and UV photonic integrated circuits

The Rank Prize Symposium on ‘Visible and UV Photonic Integrated Circuits’ took place from 11th – 14th May 2026 at Leeming House Hotel in the Lake District. These short wavelength, rapidly emerging formats of PIC technology open up exciting new opportunities in areas including nonlinear optics, advanced microscopy, bio and chemical sensing, quantum technologies, AR/VR systems and optical communications. They are enabled by a range of advanced materials platforms with varying degrees of maturity, including silicon nitride, alumina, diamond, and gallium and aluminium nitride, for both specialised integrated optical devices and scalable technology platforms which can be compatible with CMOS.

This very timely symposium addressed recent work, challenges and opportunities across a wide range of UV/visible materials science, device physics, microfabrication, integration technologies, characterisation, and performance optimisation including via data-driven and machine learning methods, as well as considering many of the major application opportunities for this technology including quantum. The work of sixteen institutions was represented by over 30 speakers, covering many of the main UK contributors (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Southampton, Cardiff, Bristol, Swansea, Cambridge, Oxford, Aston, Manchester, Loughborough, York, Fraunhofer UK) as well as providing international perspectives from institutions including UC Santa Barbara, CNRS-CRHEA, and the University of Twente. The scientific organisers of the event were Professor Rachel Oliver (Cambridge) and Professor Michael Strain (Strathclyde), supported by Professor Martin Dawson of the Rank Prize Optoelectronics Committee and Helen Berrington from the Rank Prize staff.

The meeting was marked by the uniform excellence of the presentations, which included insightful and stimulating overviews by the senior speakers and a focus on the exciting current work and future plans of the PhD students and early career researchers (ECRs). The organisers were struck by the very high level of enthusiasm, commitment and collegiality shown by all attendees, who engaged fully both in the scheduled Q&A and panel sessions as well as in the informal discussions and networking during the breaks. The open and relaxed environment helped to make this a special meeting.

Given the outstanding level of early career researcher talent present at the meeting and the very high quality of the work presented, it was very difficult to single out the best ECR presentations. Of the many possible candidates in contention, the two finally selected to be recognised by the Lord Selborne Early Career Researcher Presentation Prizes were: Dr Katarina Mamic (CNRS-CRHEA) for her talk entitled ‘GaN-based micro-LEDs with lateral electrical injection for optical gas sensing’ and Dr Natale Pruiti (University of Glasgow) for his talk entitled ‘From roughness to performance: modelling and process optimisation for ultra-low loss visible photonic integrated circuits’. Congratulations to them both and our warmest thanks to all involved.

Professor Rachel Oliver (University of Cambridge)

Professor Michael Strain (University of Strathclyde)

Professor Martin Dawson (University of Strathclyde, Rank Prize Optoelectronics Committee)