Yating Wan

June 2026

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  Nature Communications: Integrated van der Waals waveguides enable broadband all-optical nonlinear photonic circuits

  1 min read · Tue, Jun 23 2026

  News Research in Focus

  Integrated van der Waals waveguides all-optical nonlinear photonic circuits

  All-optical neural networks promise high-speed and energy-efficient computing, but implementing nonlinear activation directly in the optical domain remains a major challenge. Many existing approaches rely on electronic conversion, slow tuning mechanisms, or wavelength-sensitive resonant structures, which limits the scalability of integrated photonic computing systems. In our new Nature Communications paper, “Integrated van der Waals waveguides for all-optical nonlinear photonic circuits,” we demonstrate an integrated MoS₂ waveguide platform for broadband all-optical nonlinear activation. The
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  Nature Electronics: Chaotic VCSELs enable ultrafast photonic PUFs for dynamic authentication

  1 min read · Tue, Jun 23 2026

  News Research in Focus

  VCSEL PUF

  Real-time authentication is becoming increasingly important for cloud services, data centers, and large-scale IoT systems, where static key management can be difficult to scale and vulnerable to leakage or modeling attacks. In our new Nature Electronics paper, “Physical unclonable functions based on chaotic vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers for dynamic authentication,” we demonstrate a photonic security system that uses chaotic vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers as high-speed entropy sources for dynamic authentication. The core idea is to generate security keys directly from the

April 2026

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  Zhican Zhou Receives 2026 PSC Tingye Li Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Integrated Photonics

  1 min read · Tue, Apr 14 2026

  Awards News

  Congratulations to Zhican Zhou from KAUST Integrated Photonics Lab. He has received the 2026 PSC Tingye Li Memorial Scholarship in recognition of his contributions to integrated photonics research.

February 2026

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  Quantum dot lasers outshine expectations

  1 min read · Thu, Feb 26 2026

  News Clip News

  Resilient quantum dot lasers are set to make simpler, greener, and cheaper light-driven integrated circuits.

November 2025

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  Review in Nature Reviews EE: Advancing Silicon Photonics with CMOS

  1 min read · Sun, Nov 30 2025

  Press Releases Research in Focus

  Nature Review integrated photonics publication

  Review Article Published in Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering: Advances in Silicon Photonics and CMOS Co-Integration

February 2025

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  Double honors for Professor Yating Wan

  3 min read · Thu, Feb 13 2025

  News

  photonic silicon-based photodetectors silicon IEEE

  KAUST Professor Yating Wan receives the 2025 Sony Women in Technology and IEEE Young Investigator Awards.
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  Silicon photonics: A light way to lower data centre energy needs?

  6 min read · Wed, Feb 12 2025

  News Clip News

  An introduction on Prof. Wan's research has been published on Silicon Republic by Rebecca Graham.
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  Prof. Wan Wins Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature, Receiving $250,000 to Accelerate Pioneering Silicon Photonics Research

  1 min read · Tue, Feb 11 2025

  Awards News

  Congratulations to Yating Wan from KAUST. She won this year’s early career prize for her work in Silicon Photonics.

January 2025

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  Professor Wan receives the 2025 IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award

  1 min read · Thu, Jan 23 2025

  Awards News

  Congratulations to Yating Wan from KAUST. She has been selected as the recipient of this year’s IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award, recognized, “For contributions to silicon photonics and the integration of on-chip light sources.”

September 2024

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  Narrow-linewidth lasers bring low-noise answer

  1 min read · Wed, Sep 18 2024

  News Clip News

  Two new designs of narrow-linewidth semiconductor laser offer high-performance light sources for use in sensing and metrology.

July 2024

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  New publication on Optica!

  1 min read · Fri, Jul 19 2024

  News

  Optica

  Ultra-narrow-linewidth hybrid-integrated self-injection locked laser at 780 nm | Optica Narrow-linewidth lasers are essential across a wide range of applications, including classical and quantum sensing, trapped ion systems, position/navigation/timing systems, optical clocks, and microwave frequency synthesizers. In the visible and near-visible spectrum, low-noise lasers are particularly important for laser trapping and cooling techniques, which are vital for trapped ion quantum computing, sensing, and atomic clocks. In this context, our work showcases a hybrid-integrated narrow-linewidth
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  Congratulations! eLight receives its first IF of 27.2 (our invited paper on elight has been cited over 150 times)

  1 min read · Mon, Jul 8 2024

  eLight

  Congratulate to eLight, which has achieved an impressive first impact factor of 27.2, ranking it second among optics journals. This significant milestone comes just three years after the journal's launch. Our IPL's recent publication in eLight, Prospects and applications of on-chip lasers, has been cited for over 150 times, we are proud to contribute to the journal’s success and to be part of a community that fosters scientific excellence.

April 2024

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  New publication in Nature Photonics!

  1 min read · Tue, Apr 30 2024

  News

  Turnkey locking of quantum-dot lasers directly grown on Si | Nature Photonics Ultralow-noise laser sources are crucial for a variety of applications, including microwave synthesizers, optical gyroscopes and the manipulation of quantum systems. Silicon photonics has emerged as a promising solution for high-coherence applications due to its ability to reduce the system size, weight, power consumption and cost. Semiconductor lasers based on self-injection locking have achieved fibre laser coherence, but typically require a high-quality-factor external cavity to suppress coherence collapse through

March 2024

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  Service on IPS Conference Council, and associate editor position in JQE and Applied Optics

  1 min read · Sat, Mar 23 2024

  News

  Check here: https://ieeephotonics.org/about/conference-council/ The IEEE Photonics Society, formerly the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS), is a society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), focused on the scientific and engineering knowledge about the field of quantum electronics. In the hierarchy of IEEE, the Photonics Society is one of the close to 40 technical societies organized under the IEEE Technical Activities Board. The IEEE Photonics Society forms the hub of a vibrant technical community of more than 100,000 professionals dedicated to

November 2023

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  Paper accepted in IEEE Photonics Journal!

  1 min read · Fri, Nov 24 2023

  News

  A brief account of photonics research activities in the selected countries in the Middle East and Africa is presented in this article. Though not comprehensive, we hope to provide a glimpse of the research landscape in the region, and the collaboration and connection with each other and the international partners.

July 2023

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  A New Energy Focus

  2 min read · Sun, Jul 30 2023

  News

  A move to KAUST brings an enlightened approach to research and everyday life.
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  New publication in Light: Science and Applications!

  1 min read · Wed, Jul 26 2023

  News

  On-chip laser diodes based on quantum well (QW) and quantum dot (QD) semiconductor materials have become the primary technology for several applications due to their excellent characteristics, including high power efficiency, high-temperature operation, and small form-factors. Although QWs have been extensively used in commercial products, QDs have emerged as an attractive alternative due to their unique zero-dimensional density of states and atom-like degeneracy. Heterogeneous integration of III-V lasers with SiN microresonators, aided by self-injection locking, not only provides intrinsic

January 2023

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  New publication on eLight

  3 min read · Sun, Jan 15 2023

  News

  photonics semiconductor laser

  On 4 Jan., Integrated Photonics Lab (IPL) has published a latest review article on eLight titled “ Prospects and applications of on-chip lasers”. The article received plenty of attention in a short period of time and was selected as the cover article of the issue. Prof. Huiyun Liu's team from UCL has wrote the News & Views about the article and published on Light, titled as " From past to future: on-chip laser sources for photonic integrated circuits". Now is available online. The following quotes from the EurekAlert! report on this work. ( original report page) Global consumer Internet
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  Semiconductor Photonics Workshop on March 12th &13th at KAUST

  3 min read · Sun, Jan 15 2023

  News

  Semiconductor Photonics Workshop (SPW) will focus on the latest semiconductor photonics research on the beautiful KAUST campus by the Red Sea. It features 20 invited oral talks with the topics covering semiconductor lasers and photonic integrated circuits, solid-state lighting and visible light communications, light-matter interaction, ultrawide bandgap and wide bandgap semiconductors, integrated sensing and communication, topological photonics, ultrafast fiber lasers, etc. We aim to promote interaction and exchange of various disciplines among professionals in academia and industry, push the

November 2022

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  Professor Wan receives 2022 Rising Stars of Light Award

  3 min read · Sun, Nov 6 2022

  Awards News

  KAUST Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yating Wan recently received the 2022 Rising Stars of Light Faculty & Postdoc Track - Popescu Winner Award from Light: Science & Applications (LSA).

October 2022

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  Dr. Yating Wan was awarded 2022 Rising Stars of Light

  1 min read · Mon, Oct 24 2022

  News

  Rising Stars of Light event is a worldwide campaign for the most shining young scientists in optics-related fields. The event is initiated by nature academic journal Light: Science & Applications, and co-organized by iCANX. The event has been hosted for 5 years, and and received worldwide recognition with 0.8 million audience. Final Campaign was live hosted on iCANX talks, (replay via https://wx.vzan.com/live/page/5F3C613582AFD363523D8AEF30514434?topicid=16 23800359&v=1665373291099) . After a tough selection, three winners are announced at the beginning of this news and the below rewards go to

September 2022

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  Dr. Yating Wan selected as the Finalist of 2022 Rising Stars of Light

  1 min read · Wed, Sep 21 2022

  News

  Dr. Yating Wan was selected as the Finalist of 2022 Rising Stars of Light . Thanks Nature Light selection committees and the nominator!

July 2022

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  KAUST New Faculty: Yating Wan, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  3 min read · Tue, Jul 19 2022

  News

  photonics Optical Wireless Communication Biosensors energy harvesting quantum information processing

  Yating Wan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, joins KAUST as a member of the KAUST Photonics Laboratory from her most recent position as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), U.S.

June 2022

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  The 20-year dash: Celebrating the accomplishments of our inspiring in-Kingdom and international female scientists

  6 min read · Mon, Jun 27 2022

  News

  The presence of women in scientific disciplines in the Kingdom has risen from almost zero to 32 percent in just 20 years. KAUST has contributed greatly to the positive trend as a platform for women from Saudi Arabia and all over the world to study and develop their ideas in a modern campus and research environment.

April 2022

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  Recent invited talks by Dr. Wan

  1 min read · Tue, Apr 26 2022

  News

  Invited talks at IEEE OGC 2022 , PIERS 2022, IEEE OGC 2021, the talk of 1.3 µm High Speed Heterogeneous Quantum-Dot Lasers on Si has been highlighted in CLEO 2022

September 2021

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  Congratulations to Dr. Wan on winning 2021 OGC Best Young Scientist Award

  1 min read · Fri, Sep 3 2021

  News

  Dr. Yating Wan was invited to give a speech on "Quantum dot lasers and integration with Si photonic integrated circuits," at 2021 IEEE the 6th Optoelectronics Global Conference (OGC 2021). The conference has topics covering: Laser Technology, Optical Communication and Networks, Near-infrared, Mid-infrared and Far-infrared Technologies and Applications, Quantum Optics and Information, Fiber-Based Technologies and Applications, Optoelectronic Devices and Applications, Biophotonics and Optical Biomedicine, AI Photonics, Silicon Photonics. Dr. Yating Wan was selected by the OGC Program Chairs for