FTMC Department of Laser Technologies Receives Lithuanian Laser Association Award for Innovation of the Year

At the end of August, the Lithuanian Laser Association (LLA) held its annual conference, "Lasers. Science and Technology 2025." This year's event was special – the LLA is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

FTMC is an important part of the Lithuanian laser ecosystem, as was evident this year when conference participants voted live and selected the winners of the annual community awards.

In the "Innovation of the Year 2025" category, the award went to the FTMC Department of Laser Technologies "for a new optical element for lasers: a polarizer and spatial filter operating at a 0° angle of incidence."

We congratulate our colleagues, are delighted with this achievement, and wish them every success in the future!

The main author of the innovation is Dr Lina Grinevičiūtė, Head of the Optical Coatings Laboratory at the FTMC Department of Laser Technologies. The scientist says that she began the work for which she received the award during her doctoral studies about seven years ago. She was recognized as the author of the best scientific dissertation of 2021 in part for this research, as it constituted half of her dissertation work.

Now, Lina and her colleagues have developed a technology that allows the production of a special optical element that improves the quality of the laser beam in microlasers.

(LLA award. Photo: Dr Lina Grinevičiūtė)

"During my dissertation, I researched the growth of periodically structured coatings, applying standard coating formation technologies to the formation of such nanostructures. I am now continuing my work and discovering new applications.

Conventional 0° polarizers are made of metals or polymers. We have created them from inorganic transparent materials based on periodically modulated coatings, which together allow us to control the spatial distribution of light. This element is ideal for microlasers because it does not require lenses or other additional elements, so we have created a new element that is not yet available on the market.

Our innovation was this: we created a new technology, manufactured a non-standard optical element, and our colleagues from the Lithuanian company Optogama incorporated it into their microlaser and demonstrated that some of its properties had improved," says Grinevičiūtė.

The scientist thanks her research group and doctoral students, who contributed to the development of the technology, for the LLA award. "Our work continues, new doctoral students are joining us, and we are generating new ideas. First of all, I would like to thank my closest colleagues, because this is not the work of one person. At the same time, it is very gratifying that we are recognized not only abroad, but also by the Lithuanian laser community. It is a motivating feeling to strive and continue working in Lithuania," smiles the Head of the FTMC Optical Coatings Laboratory.

(Dr Lina Grinevičiūtė. Photo: Neil Garejev)

In another LLA nomination, "Breakthrough of the Year 2025", the award went to the Lithuanian company Integrated Optics "for significant progress in developing laser technologies for space".

Info: LLA and FTMC