LLE’s Industry Partners Drive Progress Through Collaboration

Group photo showing a large group of people standing outside in the snow.

Attendees of the inaugural IFE-STAR conference in Breckenridge, CO, in April 2025.

Since its founding in 1970, LLE has been at the forefront of cutting-edge research, education, and technological innovation in the field of laser science. Over the years, LLE scientists, engineers, and students have made countless breakthroughs that have advanced the frontiers of science and led to important practical applications, significantly impacting society at large. At the heart of this success is the emphasis LLE places on fostering collaboration, not only among various teams at the laboratory itself but also through its important partnerships with companies in the private sector. As LLE looks ahead to the future, such strategic partnerships will be essential in driving progress to address pressing global challenges.

In addition to capitalizing on the unique skills, resources, and expertise of various groups in academia and industry, collaboration drives private investment, fosters job growth, and, on a local level, helps maintain the Rochester region’s position as a leader in advancing manufacturing, communications, defense, and other high-tech sectors reliant on laser technology. On a national level, collaboration also supports the inertial fusion energy and inertial confinement fusion communities. In this article, we highlight five of LLE’s many important partnerships that are leading the way in shaping our collective future. By achieving our goal of finding solutions today, we will be better equipped to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Several of LLE’s partnerships with industry are highlighted below as examples of how collaboration fuels discovery and progress.

QED Technologies logo.

QED Technologies

QED Technologies, based in Rochester, NY, was founded in 1996 and has a longstanding international reputation for providing optics manufacturers with world-class precision polishing and metrology solutions. Its pioneering magnetorheological finishing (MRF) technology, in particular, enables the manufacture and performance demands of the complex optics used in mission-critical research activities at LLE and the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which support NNSA’s Inertial Confinement Fusion program—an integral part of its National Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.

MRF was invented in the late 1980s by William Kordonski and his colleagues at the Luikov Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer in Minsk, Belarus, and later refined and brought to commercial readiness by LLE scientist Stephen Jacobs and his team at the University of Rochester’s former Center for Optics Manufacturing. The technique uses a slurry of microscopic abrasive particles in a magnetorheological fluid—one whose viscosity can be altered with the application of a magnetic field—to shape and polish the surfaces of optical components to nanolevel smoothness. In addition to achieving mirror-like finishes, MRF is also known for its ability to polish complex shapes, including aspheres, with high accuracy and efficiency.

Earlier this summer, QED announced the news of an $18.7 million expansion project that will add 20,000 square feet to the company’s current campus on University Ave. to establish a new research and development center and expand its precision optics fabrication capabilities. “We […] recognize the importance of collaboration within our local optics and academic ecosystem to ensure that Rochester remains a leader on the world stage in optics and photonics,” says QED President and CEO Michael Mohammadi.

General Atomics Logo.

General Atomics

Another of LLE’s important partnerships is with San Diego-based defense and diversified technologies company General Atomics (GA), which, since 1991 has manufactured nearly all of the LLE target capsules scientists use for experimental campaigns on the Omega Laser System.

Four team members from GA are permanently stationed at LLE, and they work closely with the laboratory’s Target Fabrication Group and principal investigators on target design, fabrication, metrology, target delivery, and in providing target-specific shot support for national labs (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory), as well as the National Laser Users’ Facility Program. Regular meetings and visits by the LLE team to the San Diego campus ensure close collaboration and sharing of knowledge between both teams, deadline adherence, and also help drive improvements to target fabrication processes.

To learn more about the LLE–General Atomics partnership, be sure to read the full-length feature article published on page 24 in LLE in Focus Issue 5.

IFE STAR logo.

IFE-STAR

This past January, with the support of a $2.25 million grant extending over three years from the DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, LLE launched the Inertial Fusion Energy Science and Technology Accelerated Research (IFE-STAR) network, a collaborative platform focused on realizing a clean, safe, and virtually limitless energy source through inertial fusion energy.

IFE-STAR brings together academia, national laboratories, and the private sector, with three leading US research institutions each spearheading a unique hub to advance inertial fusion energy science and technology while upholding the program’s five core pillars: Educate, Innovate, Accelerate, Integrate, and Collaborate. The institutions are:

LLE’s Consortium on Laser–Plasma Interaction Research (IFE-COLoR) hub
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Science and Technology Accelerated Research (STARFIRE) hub
Colorado State University’s Research in Inertial and Sustainable Energy (RISE) hub

In addition, a central focus of the ecosystem is to address critical challenges in inertial fusion energy development, which include achieving the sustainment of a burning plasma, engineering for extreme conditions, and harnessing fusion power.

This past April, IFE-STAR held its first annual meeting in Breckenridge, CO, where nearly 200 students, scientists, engineers, and industry leaders participated in an exciting week of talks, presentations, poster sessions, and networking events highlighting the latest advances and innovations in inertial fusion energy-related research and technologies. “The first IFE-STAR conference was a big success,” says LLE scientist Mingsheng Wei. “I was impressed not only by the breadth and depth of the technical discussions, but also by how collaborative teams are working together including through public and private partnerships to accelerate IFE science and technology.”

Sydor Technologies logo.

Sydor Technologies

Sydor Technologies, a global leader in complex measurement technology solutions, headquartered in Fairport, NY, is a key manufacturing partner for inertial fusion facilities and researchers alike. Its longstanding relationship with scientists at LLE and other research facilities has led to a wide variety of commercial applications.

Last fall, LLE and Sydor Technologies were awarded a $1.15 million Phase-II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the DOE to advance the development of optical devices for high-powered laser systems. Their project, “Plasma-Electrode Pockels Cells for Inertial Fusion Facilities,” is currently underway and focuses on commercializing midscale plasma-electrode Pockels cell (mPEPC) technology, an electro-optic component essential for enabling and reducing the cost of future fusion facilities. This technology offers several key benefits for inertial fusion applications:

Facilitating multipass laser amplification, maximizing performance while reducing costs and facility size
Enabling high-power, high-energy modular lasers necessary for scalable inertial fusion systems
Integrating optical isolation and retroreflection protection within high-energy laser systems without additional optical components
Pioneering future commercial facility designs by enabling various modular and economically reproducible configurations

“This grant provides the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the experts at LLE while leveraging facility resources to construct a first-article mPEPC electro-optic cell and to further refine plasma-electrode Pockels cell technology,” says Dr. David Garand, Advanced Instrumentation Business Unit Manager at Sydor Technologies. “The Sydor team is excited to continue working toward commercializing this technology and to make it accessible for broad adoption.”

Plymouth Grating Laboratory logo.

Plymouth Grating Laboratory

Founded in 2004 by Douglas Smith and based in Carver, MA, Plymouth Grating Laboratory (PGL) is a leading manufacturer of large, high-performance diffraction gratings for lasers and laser systems. Before starting PGL, Smith worked for nearly two decades in LLE’s Optical Manufacturing (OMAN) department, overseeing the production of thin-film coatings and optics manufacturing, gaining expertise in the development of large optics for high-intensity laser applications.

These diffraction gratings, which consist of a series of adjacent grooves or slits etched onto the surface of a substrate, are used to separate a beam of light into its different wavelengths. This unique technology enables scientists to effectively manipulate and control the laser beam wavelengths as needed for a range of applications, including the inertial confinement fusion experiments that are conducted on the Omega Laser System at LLE.

In 2023, the University of Rochester received a three-year, $18 million award from the National Science Foundation to design NSF OPAL, a proposed new facility at LLE dedicated to the study and exploration of ultrahigh intensity laser–matter interactions. PGL received a portion of this funding to design and develop extra-large gratings—potentially as large as two meters wide—for the two 25-petawatt all-optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification lasers that will be built and housed at the facility. The precise requirements and complexities involved in the fabrication of these large gratings make this process extremely challenging and therefore, this project is a testament to the skill and dedication of PGL’s technicians and engineers who work together with LLE scientists to realize these highly advanced innovations. In parallel, LLE will be working with the community to increase the damage threshold of gratings and shrink the size of the gratings necessary to handle 25 petawatts.

“PGL is honored to play a crucial role in enabling the world’s highest peak power laser,” says PGL’s President Turan Erdogan, who received his PhD in optics from the University of Rochester in 1992. “Not only are ultrahigh-intensity lasers like this one making possible pioneering science such as laser particle acceleration, laboratory astrophysics, and laser-driven nuclear science, but they will one day also have tremendous practical impact in areas that touch every individual’s life, including energy, security, and medicine.”

Workforce Development

LLE’s commitment to workforce development is reflected in several initiatives that prepare students for careers in science, engineering, and industry. One is the Inertial Fusion Energy–Science and Technology Accelerated Research (IFE-STAR) network and its Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, IFE-SURE (see page 24)—an immersive program that places students at more than 20 institutions to work alongside leading scientists and engineers. Through IFE-STAR, industry is a key partner that helps students see future opportunities. Companies participate through Department of Energy programs such as INFUSE (Innovative Network for Fusion Energy) and FIRE (Fusion Innovation Research Engine). A consortium of universities, government laboratories, and private partners meets quarterly to coordinate efforts and strengthen the pathway toward a fusion-ready workforce.

Complementing these national collaborations, LLE’s Undergraduate Education Program engages students each year in mission-critical science and engineering. More than 40 mentors across the Laboratory guide undergraduates majoring in physics, engineering, optics, computer science, data science, chemistry, and mathematics. Over 50 undergraduates are engaged in research at LLE. Their projects contribute directly to LLE’s mission and give students hands-on experience with advanced technologies rarely accessible at the undergraduate level. Many students continue into graduate school, national laboratory internships, and careers in industry or at LLE itself. The program also provides opportunities to connect with alumni and workforce leaders at national laboratories, giving students valuable perspective on future career paths.

LLE’s decades-long partnership with SUNY Geneseo further reinforces this pipeline. Hundreds of Geneseo undergraduates have gained experience at LLE with many continuing to doctoral programs or positions at national laboratories, in academia, industry, and at LLE. Roughly 10% of LLE’s workforce today are Geneseo alumni, a testament to the enduring strength of this collaboration.

On a more local level, these initiatives dovetail with demands fueled by the Rochester region’s burgeoning industry of optics, imaging, and laser technology. With over 150 businesses and an annual economic output of more than $3.5 billion, the region is an unparalleled hub of innovation.¹ As a major research center and the world’s largest laser facility in an academic setting, “LLE’s impact locally, nationally, and across the globe is truly immeasurable,” says New York State Assembly member Sarah Clark.

A version of this article appears in Issue 7 of LLE In Focus, the magazine of the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics.