Mr. Smirnov pioneered the early development of volume Bragg grating(VBG) technology in PTR glass. He was the principal investigator of ten + research projects on technology development of volume Bragg gratings for spectroscopy, high energy femtosecond lasers, and spectral beam combining. He is cofounder of OptiGrate Corp in 1999, coauthor of 10+ US patents and 120+ papers and multiple presentations mainly on PTR glass, volume Bragg gratings produced from this glass, and lasers controlled by those gratings. His work on a technology of holographic optical elements enabled mass production of
high-quality volume Bragg gratings in a PTR glass. Those holographic elements facilitated development of novel laser systems based on intracavity VBGs, low frequency RAMAN spectrometers, hyperspectral imagers, ultra-narrow filters for quantum optics, high energy compressors for ultra-short pulses, etc. Nowadays he continue further development of PTR glass technology and its applications. Smirnov is a Fellow of SPIE.