If you look at the photonics landscape, you will see some well-known hotspots: There is of course Jena (my hometown) in Germany; Rochester, N.Y., and Tucson, Ariz., in the U.S.; and Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Vilnius, the capital of the Baltic state Lithuania, might not be the first place that you think of, but it’s definitely up there, too.
Lithuania is a small country, roughly twice the size of the state of Maryland, with a population of 2.9 million. Its status as a photonics hotbed, especially in ultrashort-pulse laser technology, owes to the academics and the many reputable brands that headquarter in Vilnius. Light Conversion, Standa, EKSMA Optics, and EKSPLA are among the firms that have been established in Vilnius during the last 40 years. Today, 60 companies and more than 2000 people working in lasers and photonics call the country home, said Gediminas Raciukaitis, who serves as head of the laser department of the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC) and president of the Lithuania Laser Association in Vilnius.
On the industry side, Light Conversion is Lithuania’s largest laser maker. The company develops and manufactures ultrashort-pulse lasers, employs 600 people, and has procured more than €100 million in annual sales revenues. Today, more than 7500 of its laser systems are active in the field.
In September, Light Conversion hosted the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) Technology Meeting on Laser Microprocessing — the first such meeting in Lithuania since 2015. Company CEO Martynas Barkauskas personally led participants on a tour of the company’s state-of-the-art facility. The company moved into a new building in 2021, and the space is nearly full after years of double-digit growth.
A dinosaur serves the laser community
Lithuania’s foundation in laser research is a long-term success story. The first laser built there was completed in 1966, and in the decades that followed, innovations emerged in the field of ultrashort-pulse lasers. The method of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification was invented by a research group at Vilnius University and represented a major advancement in improving the amplification of ultrashort pulses. Needless to say, Lithuania, and Vilnius in particular, has always been a home to many physics and laser students.
Yet this does not completely explain their long-term engagement and their commercial success. Germany is only an hour from Vilnius, and the U.S. is tempting. So why do students stay and continue to build a robust local laser industry?
Vilnius hosts the Day of Physics (FiDi) and its
annual parade (top). The famed dinosaur
leads the pack.
Gediminas Raciukaitis, head of the laser
department of the Center for Physical Sciences
and Technology (FTMC) and president of the
Lithuania Laser Association in Vilnius, Lithuania,
leads a session at the EPIC Technology Meeting
on Laser Microprocessing (middle).
Four company visits and 20 presentations
highlighted the proceedings of the 2024 EPIC
Technology Meeting on Laser Microprocessing
(bottom). The meeting was held in Vilnius,
Lithuania, Sept. 25 to 26. Courtesy of EPIC, Nail Garejev, Andreas Thoss.
I posed this question to Raciukaitis, who smiled and told me the story of FiDi and the dinosaur. FiDi, which stands for the “Day of Physics” in Lithuanian, has been celebrated in Vilnius since 1969. During the Brezhnev (head of the Soviet Union, of which Lithuania was a part of at that time) era, a group of physicists fought for a day of physics — and got it. FiDi has been celebrated ever since; the area surrounding the university is transformed into PhysLand, with many attractions, such as potato cannons, and laser experiments are open to the public.
“In 1978, some physics students had the idea to build a dinosaur — a large one, with a car inside,” Raciukaitis said. “On the Day of Physics, in April, they moved it within a great procession of several kilometers through the whole city of Vilnius to the philological department of the university. And they have done this every year since then!”
Such an activity gets noticed in a small country. In 2014, even the Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaite, took part in FiDi46. It was at the high time of her campaign for the next term, and apparently the pictures of her and the dinosaur did not hurt, as she would soon win another term. The whole story of FiDi (and Dinas Zaurus) can be seen on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_I3pXlSe4M).
Believe it or not, FiDi and the dinosaur have helped to shape a positive image of physics in Lithuania as well as generations of physics students in Vilnius. During the months of preparation, participants not only learn team skills but also make friends for life. This is where the Lithuanian laser elite forms as a team. Consider local photonics students, for example, and ponder how such an annual project would drive their spirit.
And these teams extend beyond academia. When Lithuanian graduates visit Vilnius for an interview, they may find a buddy from a previous FiDi parade sitting across the table from them. At the very least, the CEO they are talking to is likely to be a Lithuanian who has followed the same career path and who knows exactly what to expect. As the most prominent example, Barkauskas himself studied in Vilnius and started as a postdoc at Light Conversion before moving into the service department, learning about customer needs and technical problems. Today as CEO, he enjoys close connections to local professors, competitors, and new entrepreneurs. And of course, he has helped build a dinosaur.
What’s hot and cooking?
EPIC is an industry consortium, and so its Technology Meeting presentations are unrelated to academic achievements and instead focused on technological progress in industry. Industrial applications of ultrashort pulses were the main theme of the EPIC Technology Meeting on Laser Microprocessing. Texturing large surfaces became a hot topic. Lasers — including those with gigahertz bursts — as well as scanners, software, beam-shaping mechanisms, and ultraviolet (UV) pulses each took the spotlight. Drilling glass with a bottom-up approach, in which the beam from the top starts drilling from the bottom and moves upward, was mentioned repeatedly. Multibeam systems and fringe-based processing was also the focus of many discussions. One guest asked about the potential for an application to emerge that requires the development of a deep-UV scanner (another hen-and-egg discussion).
New ideas were also presented — such as laser dicing of semiconductors — through a liquid. Germany-based startup Lidrotec offers machines that perform this function. A layer of a flowing liquid on the surface allows clean and dust-free dicing of materials, such as silicon carbide, said Christian Keil, Lidrotec’s developer of business development and sales. The liquid is (obviously) transparent and nonpoisonous, and it has a low viscosity.
Andreas Russ came from the other end of the scale. At Robert Bosch Manufacturing Solutions, Russ is group leader for laser technology for special machines. His team provides the automotive industry with complete solutions for various laser processes. This includes systems engineering, machine construction, and process development.
I found the work of this unit to be a surprising answer to the old “make or buy” question: I supposed that a large company, such as Bosch, would benefit from purchasing from one of the numerous system integrators. But, as I was told later, the company did not want to share all of its process know-how. In this context, making is of course better than buying.
The machines that Russ’ unit delivers must be fully networked and optimized for 24/7 operation with minimum downtime. This equates to, for example, monitoring both the laser and the process, as well as storing all data for traceability. Russ shared application examples that ranged from diesel injection nozzles to surface polishing of silicon wafers. The challenges — managing machines around the world in different climates and with different levels of operator expertise — are considerable. Russ’ presentation journeyed into the world of big industry, and the audience followed with great excitement.
Going out to companies
EPIC Technology Meetings have a strong bias toward networking. “People come here to synchronize,” said Tim Kunze, CEO and cofounder of Fusion Bionic, a solution provider for laser-based surface functionalization. “They promote their offers or find a partner whose services they need.”
Often, this happens during one of the frequent coffee breaks, or over dinner. But the company visits are also excellent for this purpose. Even the bus trips can develop into a one-to-one pitch, if you know how to make it. Of course, the company visits themselves serve a similar purpose.
EPIC facilitated four company visits in Vilnius. Following the tour of Light Conversion, a visit to EKSMA Optics gave an answer to another major question: What is the difference between the two local brands EKSMA and EKSPLA? EKSMA, it turns out, stands for “experimental scientific equipment” while EKSPLA stands for “experimental lasers.” Also on the itinerary was Workshop of Photonics (WOP). A site visit to this company provided insights into its Bessel-beam-based technology for in-glass processing of microfluidic structures.
Also, Remigijus Šliupas, CEO and cofounder of Optoman, offered interesting details about the company’s market reach. Of the 300,000 optical coatings that Optoman sells each year, 19% go to the local industry, 37% are sold in Germany, and only 5% are sold in America. Like most companies, Optoman runs its machines 24/7. Labor shortages are an issue, which Šliupas takes as motivation to push automation.
What to take home
EPIC meetings are intense networking events. Two days feel like five, and Vilnius was no different, with two dinners, 20 presentations, four company visits, and many hours of networking. Several of the presentations can now be downloaded from the EPIC event page.
There were a few key takeaways from the event. First, the laser industry is thriving in Lithuania and driving international expansion. A crucial part of the supply chain is in Vilnius, and with the tight connection to the main university, local industry has a steady source of qualified staff. They can and will grow with a focus on exports.
Second, laser micromachining is on the verge of finding more mass applications. Companies, such as Bosch, are driving applications in the automotive industry. The largest system sales are actually in semiconductor processing and consumer electronics manufacturing. It remains to be seen whether systems for structuring metal surfaces will catch up to semiconductor sales figures. The technology has reached a level of efficiency and scalability that is now competitive with that of established technologies.
So, another EPIC meeting concluded, providing the participants with valuable insights and contacts. And it seems reasonable not to wait another nine years for the next such event in Vilnius.