BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA — SPIE and Chinese Laser Press (CLP) proudly share the 2025 Editor-in-Chief Choice Award announcement for the best paper published in the scientific journal Advanced Photonics Nexus, which published 98 articles that year.
The winning research article, “Intelligent soliton molecules control in an ultrafast thulium fiber laser,” was published 21 January 2025 by Yi Zhou, Kangwen Yang, Kevin K. Tsia, and Kenneth K. Y. Wong, each of The University of Hong Kong, and Heping Zeng of East China Normal University.
Established in 2022, Advanced Photonics Nexus is a Gold Open Access international journal that publishes novel results of high significance and broad interest in all areas of optics and photonics. The journal, co-published by SPIE and CLP, publishes high-quality original papers, letters, and review articles, reflecting important advances in fundamental and applied aspects of optics and photonics.
Advanced Photonics Nexus is the sibling journal of the highly selective international journal Advanced Photonics, both available online in the SPIE Digital Library and at CLP’s Researching site.
Xiao-Cong (Larry) Yuan, of Shenzhen University, Anatoly Zayats, of King's College London, and Weibiao Chen, of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly serve as the co-editors-in-chief for the journal. The Advanced Photonics Nexus Editor-in-Chief Choice Award recognizes exceptional papers based on the importance of the work to the optics and photonics field. Articles published between December 2024 and December 2025 were eligible for the honor.
About the award-winning paper, Zayats notes, “By integrating evolutionary algorithms with nonlinear laser dynamics, this work establishes a novel framework for programmable photonic states with strong implications for optical information processing and next-generation communication technologies.”
"In the field of ultrafast lasers, achieving autonomous and programmable control of soliton molecules has long been a notorious technical bottleneck. What makes this work truly stand out,” says Yuan, “is the integration of intelligent feedback algorithms into a thulium fiber laser, completely transforming traditional, tedious manual tuning into fully automated, precise control. The approach of leveraging artificial intelligence to manipulate complex nonlinear dynamics is highly innovative, and the execution is incredibly solid. It provides invaluable insights for the development of next-generation intelligent photonic devices."
“We are greatly honored to receive the 2025 Editor-in-Choice Award of Advanced Photonics Nexus,” share the award-winning authors. “We sincerely appreciate the recognition and support from the editors-in-chief and the editorial team for our work.”
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