Next-Generation Ultra-Low-Loss Integrated Photonics: From Mode-Locked Lasers to Traveling-Wave Amplifiers

Tobias Kippenberg

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)

Tobias J. Kippenberg has been Full Professor in the Institute of Physics and Electrical Engineering at EPFL in Switzerland since 2013. He joined EPFL in 2008 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor. Prior to EPFL, he was the leader of an Independent Max Planck Junior Research group at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, Germany. While at the MPQ he demonstrated radiation pressure cooling of optical micro-resonators and developed techniques with which mechanical oscillators can be cooled, measured and manipulated in the quantum regime that are now part of the research field of Cavity Quantum Optomechanics. Moreover, his group discovered the generation of optical frequency combs using high Q micro-resonators, a principle known now as micro-combs or Kerr combs. This discovery unlocked record data transmission rate which led to the development of new concepts in telecommunications in collaborations with industry. For his early contributions in these two research fields, he was recipient of the EFTF Award for Young Scientists (2011), The Helmholtz Prize in Metrology (2009), the EPS Fresnel Prize (2009), ICO Award (2014), Swiss Latsis Prize (2014), the Wilhelmy Klung Research Prize in Physics (2015), the 2018 ZEISS Research Award, the R.W. Wood Prize (2021) and the Marcel Benoist Prize (2025). Moreover, he is 1st prize recipient of the "8th European Union Contest for Young Scientists" in 1996. He has been ranked in the top 1% as a highly cited physicist by Clarivate Analytics since 2014. He is co-founder of the startups LIGENTEC SA, an integrated photonics foundry, DEEPLIGHT SA, a supplier of advanced laser sources, LUXTELLIGENCE SA, a thin-film lithium tantalate foundry, and EDWATEC SA, a company developing rare-earth ion doped photonic integrated circuits for photonic integrated circuit-based Erbium amplifiers and lasers. Prof. Kippenberg has authored more than 280 papers. He is an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAE), and the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW).