Tianjin University, founded in 1895 as Peiyang University, is the oldest institution of higher education in the modern history of China. The optical engineering discipline is the dominant major at Tianjin University, emerging as optical instruments (1958) and laser technology (1970) in China. Over the past 60 years, great contributions in the field have extended to personnel training, scientific research and service to the society and development of Tianjin University.

At present, optical engineering at Tianjin University features two research areas: laser nonlinear optics and photoelectric information technology, which involves terahertz photonics, ultrafast photonics, all solid state laser technology, quantum and nonlinear optics, a new generation of optical fiber sensing and sensing network technology, ultra-high speed optical communication technology, new photoelectric imaging and detection technology, and other directions. Thanks to all the authors for contributing their latest research findings on TJU’s feature topics.

I also thank Applied Optics for providing us with a presentation of TJU’s research activities, and I am very honored to introduce this feature issue to a large majority of our friends. I hope that these articles will help us expand our communication and collaboration with colleagues, experts and friends from all over the world to better serve the international optical community.