Zihan Zang, PhD

Optical engineer bridging cutting-edge photonics research with manufacturable solutions for LiDAR, imaging, and AR systems.

Currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Intelligent Optics Lab at UCLA Bioengineering, where I work with Prof. Liang Gao on ultrafast imaging and fabrication-aware diffractive optics. I earned my Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2023 (advisor: Prof. Yi Luo), receiving the Best Dissertation Award for my work on 3D sensing with diffractive optical elements.

My background spans 8+ years of full-stack optical system development—combining lens and DOE design (Zemax, CODE V, metalens, freeform, metagrating), cleanroom prototyping, and MEMS-based ToF LiDAR builds. I also build simulation pipelines and inverse-design tools using Python, C++, and PyTorch.

I have authored 15+ peer-reviewed publications as co-first or corresponding author in Optica, Optics Express, APL Photonics, and Photonics Research.

Email Scholar
Zihan Zang headshot

Portfolio

DOE optimization schematic

Fabrication‑Integrated DOE Design

End‑to‑end differentiable framework links lithography physics with optical merit functions, reducing phase‑error by 4×.

Optica 2025
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More examples coming soon…

Selected Publications

Fabrication-integrated design paper

Fabrication‑integrated design for diffractive optical elementsNEW

Optica 12(2), 228‑238, 2025 (co‑first & corr.)
Ultrafast 3D LiDAR review paper

Towards an ultrafast 3D imaging scanning LiDAR system: a review

Photonics Research 12(8), 1709‑1729, 2024
High-order dispersion LiDAR paper

Breaking speed barriers for scanning LiDAR through high‑order dispersion

CLEO 2024
FOV enhancement LiDAR paper

Enhancing the FOV of spectral‑scanning FMCW LiDAR via multipass echelle grating

Optics Letters 49(11), 3267‑3270, 2024
Extended ray‑mapping method paper

Extended ray‑mapping with differentiable ray‑tracing for freeform illumination design

Optics Express 31(19), 30066‑30078, 2023
Ultrafast parallel single‑pixel LiDAR paper

Ultrafast parallel single‑pixel LiDAR with spectro‑temporal encoding

APL Photonics 7(4), 046102, 2022
Freeform spot array paper

64×64 spot‑array generation using freeform optics

CLEO‑PR 2022
VIPA beam steering paper

Spectrally scanning LiDAR via wide‑angle agile diffractive beam steering

IEEE PTL 34(16), 850‑853, 2022
VIPA 2D LiDAR paper

VIPA‑based 2D non‑mechanical beam steering for FMCW LiDAR

Applied Optics 60(8), 2177‑2189, 2021
Solid‑state FMCW LiDAR paper

Solid‑state FMCW LiDAR with 2D spectral scanning via VIPATop Downloads

Optics Express 29(11), 16547‑16562, 2021
VIPA wireless communication paper

Infrared optical wireless comms using VIPA‑based 2D beam steering

Optics Express 29(13), 20175‑20189, 2021

Blog

Visulize Nerual Network

Use ResNet18 an any picture as an example

Apr 2025 | AI

What I Learned from DOE Design for Manufacturing

From phase errors to photolithography limits: lessons from building a differentiable framework that actually works.

Jan 2025 | Photonics

Industry or Academia? Navigating Photonics Careers

Reflections on making research transferable to products—and what surprised me most when shifting mindset.

Mar 2025 | Career Path

Beyond Research

I'm passionate about music composition and production, working across genres from classical and jazz to world music and electronics. I play piano, saxophone, and baroque recorder, and enjoy creating original compositions. Here are some of my musical samples:

In the Moment 00:00 / 00:00
Memory Loop 00:00 / 00:00
Sunrise in Gobi Desert 00:00 / 00:00
Childhood Games 00:00 / 00:00
Morning Market 00:00 / 00:00
Remote Hometown 00:00 / 00:00

Get in Touch

Email is fastest, but I'm also active on LinkedIn.