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Optica Publishing Group publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed articles in its portfolio of journals, which serve the full breadth of the optics and photonics community.

Applied Optics publishes in-depth peer-reviewed content about applications-centered research in optics. These articles cover research in optical technology, photonics, lasers, information processing, sensing and environmental optics.

Applied Optics' research articles should:

  • Concentrate on practical applications of science and technology,
  • Introduce new science or technology by either increasing understanding of existing research or reporting novel applications,
  • Include the development and performance of technologies when applying theories,
  • Provide sufficient background, detail, and explanation so that others can reproduce the results, and so that the significance of the work is clear.

In addition to original research articles, invited review articles, and comments on published articles, Applied Optics is now publishing Engineering and Laboratory Notes (E&L Notes). E&L Notes are brief articles devoted to the design, analysis, fabrication, integration, alignment, and measurement techniques used when creating optical components and systems. E&L Notes offers a unique way to publish observations from your engineering notebook in Applied Optics.

Submission Information

Is my paper appropriate for Applied Optics? Read about all of our journals here.

Please see the Author Resource Center for instructions to prepare and submit a manuscript.

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Key Journal Metrics

Impact Factor: 1.905*
Total Citations: 55,255*
Cited Half-Life: 12.7 years*
Journal Citation Indicator: 0.63*
Google Scholar h5-index: 54†
Median Time to First Decision: 34 days
Median Time to Web Publication: 89 days

*Source: 2022 Journal Citation Reports® (Clarivate, 2022).
†2022 Google Scholar Optics & Photonics Top Publications.

For more information on Journal metrics, click here.

Editorial Board


Editor-in-Chief
Gisele Bennett,
MEPSS LLC, USA
Deputy Editors

Muhammad Nadeem Akram
University College Southeast Norway, Norway

Martha Rosete-Aguilar
National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico

Weiyao Zou
Zygo Ametek, USA

Features Editors

Md Selim Habib
University of Central Florida, CREOL, USA

David Haefner
U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, USA
(Engineering and Laboratory Notes)

Topical Editors

Oriol Arteaga
University of Barcelona, Spain
(Polarization, Polarimetry, Ellipsometry, and Polarimetric Imaging)

Simone Berneschi
CNR-Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara", Italy
(Integrated Optics; Optoelectronics; Optical Amplifiers and Lasers; Microresonators)

Monica Bollani
CNR-Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara", Italy
(Optical and Electronic Lithography Fabrication; Nano Imprinting Lithography)

Jeremy P. Bos
Michigan Technological University, USA
(Atmospheric Turbulence, Adaptive optics, and Image Processing)

Nicholas Devaney
National University of Ireland, Galway
(Adaptive Optics)

Manuel De la Torre Ibarra
Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica A.C., Mexico
(Interferometry, Digital Image Processing, Opto-mechatronic Systems and Programming)

Peter Dragic
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
(Optical Fiber and Optical Devices)

Joyce Farrell
Stanford University, USA
(Image Processing and Systems)

Catalin Florea
Honeywell International Inc, USA
(Waveguides, Infrared Materials, Devices and Systems)

Corinne Fournier
Télécom Saint-Étienne (TSE), France
(Unconventional Optical Imaging, Optics/Data Processing, Inverse Problems, Digital Holography)

Orges Furxhi
Imec USA, USA
(Imaging Systems)

Szymon Gladysz
Fraunhofer IOSB, Germany
(Adaptive Optics, Atmospheric Turbulence, Speckle, Image Restoration, Imaging through Turbulence, Laser Propagation, Free-space Optical Communications)

Alexander Goncharov
National University of Ireland, Galway
(Optical Design and Metrology)

Simonetta Grilli
National Research Council (CNR), Italy
(Information Processing, Holography)

Byoung Seung Ham
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), S. Korea
(Quantum Optics, Quantum Interference)

Khan Iftekharuddin
Old Dominion University, USA
(Machine Learning/AI for Information Processing and Image Processing)

Young L. Kim
Purdue University
(Biomedical Optics)

Caroline Lai
Rockley Photonics, USA
(Optical Communication)

Andrey Matsko
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, USA
(Optoelectronics, Quantum Optics, and Light Matter Interaction)

Jay Louise Nadeau
Portland State University, USA
(Biomedical Optics, Optical Design and Fabrication)

Kara Peters
North Carolina State University, USA
(Fiber Optical Sensors)

Nikolay Petrov
ITMO University, Russia
(Digital and Display Holography, Imaging and Microscopy, Ultrafast Optics, Structured Light)

Federico Pirzio
University of Pavia, Italy
(Solid-state lasers, Ultrafast lasers, and Laser materials)

Stavros Pissadakis
FORTH-IESL, Greece
(Photonic Devices and Fiber Sensors)

Wen Qiao
Soochow University, China
(3D Display, Diffraction, Flat Lens, Micro/nano-fabrication)

Jarkko J. Saarinen
University of Eastern Finland, Finland
(Materials Science and Spectroscopy)

Mark Spencer
Air Force Institute of Technology, USA
(Directed energy, Laser systems, Beam control, Phase Compensation, Atmospheric and deep turbulence, Thermal blooming, Aero-optics, Wavefront sensing, Adaptive optics, Rough surface scattering, Speckle phenomena, Digital holography, Coherent detection, Unconventional and Computational imaging)

Christopher Stolz
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
(Optical Materials and Laser Interactions with Optical Materials)

Liangbi Su
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, CAS, China
(Solid State Lasers, Optical Materials, Novel Crystals, and Laser Materials)

Tatsuki Tahara
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan
(Digital Holography, Digital Holographic Microscopy, and Optical Information Processing)

Javier Vargas
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
(Image Processing and Machine Vision)

Przemyslaw Wojciech Wachulak
Military University of Technology, Poland
(EUV Lithography and X-ray Optics)

Pengfei Wang
Harbin Engineering University, China
(Fiber Optic Devices and Sensors)

Yiping Wang
Shenzhen University, China
(Fiber Sensors)

Songhua Wu
Ocean University of China, China
(Atmospheric and Ocean Optical Remote Sensing, Lidar, and Solid-state Lasers)

Jiangfeng Zhou
University of South Florida, USA (Terahertz and Photonic Metamaterial)

Leimeng Zhuang
Imec USA, USA
(Optical signal processing; Photonic integrated circuits; Optical communications; Microwave photonics; Integrated optics)

Engineering and Laboratory Notes Review Panel
David Haefner, Features Editor, U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, USA
Erwan Baleine, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, USA
Matthew Fisher, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, USA
Orges Furxhi, imec USA, USA
John Nunn, MKS Instruments, Inc., USA
Austin Richards, FLIR Systems, Inc., USA

Staff

Editorial and Production E-mail Phone
Nicole Williams-Jones, Peer Review Coordinator aomss@optica.org 202-416-1969
Feature Proposals dmcdonold@optica.org
Cristina Kapler, Managing Editor ckapler@optica.org 202-416-1489
Dan Dawes, Senior Production Editor
Reprints Sheridan Electronic Order Center
Publication charges billing@optica.org

General Information
Copyright permission requests copyright@optica.org
Online Journal Technical Support elec@optica.org
Elizabeth Nolan, Chief Publishing Officer
Kelly Cohen, Senior Publisher
M. Scott Dineen, Senior Director, Publishing, Production & Technology.
Christopher Videll, Director, Production & Technology
Carmelita Washington, Peer Review Manager
Daphne Greenwood, Senior Director of Marketing & Sales, Publishing