Welcome to Spotlight on Optics

Spotlight on Optics highlights select articles each month from our publications and is free to access through Optica Publishing Group.

Spotlight on Optics (Spotlight) features articles nominated by our Topical and Associate Editors to show the breadth and quality of our content from six major technical divisions: Information Acquisitions, Processing, and Display; Light-Matter Interactions; Optical Design and Instrumentation; Optics in Biology; Optoelectronics; and Vision and Color.

These articles from Optica Publishing Group's ISI-ranked publications are Open Access and accompanied by an original summary written in plain English.

Journal Editors identify articles for Spotlight that generally appeal to the broader optics and photonics community. Spotlight articles have excellent scientific quality, are representative of the level of work taking place in a specific area, and put other work in perspective. Readers are invited to post comments to the Spotlight website, creating the potential for dialogue between author and reader (and among readers).

Once a paper is confirmed as selected, Panel members consisting of individuals from the scientific community, specializing in one of the six technical divisions, then review the research and compose the article's accompanying Spotlight summary. These summaries/analyses can take one of the following forms:

  • An Explanation of the content, the foremost purpose being a description of the research that makes it understandable to the nonspecialist.
  • A Viewpoint piece that presents a subjective evaluation of the research.
  • An Application perspective that connects and/or introduces this work to a discipline other than its stated category.
  • A Review/Synopsis of the research with perspective points as applicable.

Spotlight on Optics Panel Chairs

Spotlight on Optics Panel Members