Topics

The Nanophotonics Committee solicits papers and presentations addressing a broad spectrum of optics at the nanometer scale, covering technology and basic science. Novel optical phenomena and extreme responses of light-matter interactions at nanoscale hold promise for development of photonic technologies that are compact, fast and efficient. Topics of interest and focus but not limited are summarized below:

• Basic science of strong light-matter interaction
• Optical properties of nanostructures and structured surfaces
• Linear, nonlinear and ultrafast spectroscopy at the nanoscale
• Quantum dots, nanostructured LEDs and lasers
• Photonic bandgap structures
• Plasmonics, metamaterials, metasurfaces and metal optics
• Nano resonators and apertures
• Chiral light-matter interactions
• Microscopy and imaging with sub-wavelength resolution
• Novel nano-fabrication and nanolithography techniques
• Technologies enabled and powered by nanophotonics including high density optical data storage, as well as applications in high-bandwidth communications
• Optical nano-biosensors
• Topological nanophotonics
• Inverse design for nanophotonics
• Nanophotonic engineering with strain, thermal, electrical, optical, and mechanical control.
• Nanophotonic materials with novel optical, electronic, thermal, mechanical, and spin polarization properties, including the emerging class of 2D materials (graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, etc.).
• Nanostructured solar power generation

The Committee on Optical Micro/Nano Resonators and Devices encourages submission of papers on recent achievements in the field of optical micro/nano resonators, devices, optomechanics, and related phenomena. The committee is especially interested in contributions demonstrating significant advances in the performance, new resonance effects at micro/nano scale, innovative types and configurations, and new applications of optical and plasmonic microresonators.

The subcommittee on Semiconductor Lasers and Sources (SLS) solicits papers on recent advances in the growths, computational designs, new theoretical concepts, fabrications, and characterizations of semiconductor lasers and sources. The subcommittee covers the basic sciences, devices, integrated technologies, and system-level implementation of semiconductor lasers and sources. The laser devices, sources, and integrated technologies will cover emission wavelengths from extreme ultraviolet up to terahertz spectral regimes. The specific areas of interest covered by this subcommittee include:

• New theoretical and computational methods in semiconductor lasers
• New material and engineered nanoscale active regions in semiconductor lasers
• High-power lasers and laser arrays
• Visible and short-wavelength lasers
• Long-wavelength and quantum cascade lasers
• Vertical cavity and other surface-emitting lasers
• Light-emitting diodes, and solid state lighting
• Optical communication lasers and transmitters
• On-chip laser sources for photonic integrated circuits
• Micro- / nanocavity lasers and related areas of plasmonics
• New semiconductor laser designs, materials, and fabrication techniques
• Semiconductor lasers in quantum technologies and quantum engineering
• Data sciences and machine learning in semiconductor laser designs
• Application of semiconductor lasers in cyber-physical systems, resilient infrastructures, internet-of-things, and autonomous systems.

The subcommittee on Photodetectors, Sensors and Imaging (PSS) solicits papers on all types of photodetectors, imaging, optical and electro-optical sensors, as well as their related materials, devices and systems. Topics of interest include:

• Novel photoconductive and photovoltaic materials and devices (including avalanche photodiodes, very high-speed detectors, and photodetectors based on organic materials) for the range of operation in the entire electromagnetic spectrum (gamma-ray, x-ray, UV, visible, near-IR, mid-IR, far-IR, terahertz, microwave and RF).
• Detector technologies that exploit novel phenomena to enhance performance, functionality and manufacturability including CMOS-compatible germanium detectors, plasmonic and metamaterial devices, microwave-photonic devices, nanoscale quantum structures (dots/wires/wells), superlattices, MCT detectors, MEMS-based wavelength-tunable sensors, quantum sensors, and bioinspired sensors.
• Novel photovoltaic devices and energy harvesting systems.
• Integrated detectors for silicon photonics.
• Devices, techniques and systems for single-photon detection.
• Imaging systems including high operating-temperature focal-plane arrays (FPAs) for thermal imaging, active CMOS imagers, multicolor and tunable FPAs for spectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, polarization imagers, novel readout circuits, and smart-pixel FPAs.
• Methods for 3D imaging, visualization and recognition.
• Adaptive-optics systems for imaging and display.
• Holographic-based and incoherent-holographic-based imaging and sensing systems.
• Novel optical microsystems, optofluidic devices and fiber-optic sensors.
• Novel approaches for microobject manipulation, imaging and tracking in microfluidic environment.
• Advanced microscopes based on spatial light modulators, quantitative phase-contrast, super-resolution and computational imaging techniques.
• Compressive sensing and multichannel and multimodal data acquisition and imaging.
• Infrastructures for virtual laboratories and remote metrology.

The subcommittee on Nonlinear and Ultrafast Optics solicits papers on recent discoveries, advances, and developments in the field of nonlinear optical interactions with materials and in the science and technology of ultrafast electronics, photonics, and optoelectronics. Topics of interest include new concepts and their implementations as well as significant advances are summarized in the following:

• Fundamental nonlinear optical physics and material properties including nonlinear materials, metamaterials and plasmonic materials
• Nonlinear frequency conversion processes and devices including parametric amplification and oscillation
• Spontaneous parametric down-conversion for applications in quantum optics
• Optical frequency combs and applications
• Nonlinear integrated devices and circuits
• Intense field phenomena
• Spontaneous and stimulated Raman scattering
• Guided waves and solitons
• Applications of nonlinear optics in laser and optical light amplification
• THz generation and propagation, photonics, devices, and applications
• Switching, modulation, and communication
• Optical storage
• Attosecond physics and applications
• Novel ultrafast and fiber sources
• Broadband and supercontinuum sources
• Propagation, measurement, processing, and detection of ultrashort optical and electronic pulses
• Ultrafast optical, electronic and optoelectronic materials, components, devices, and systems
• Novel applications of ultrafast technology in the investigation of transient phenomena in physics, electrical engineering, and material science
• X-ray generation using ultrafast laser pulses

Papers are solicited on the topic of photonic materials, processes, components, integration and packaging. Materials and processes cover all aspects of photonic materials, including materials science and technology, material growth and synthesis, monolithic and heterogeneous integration, material characterization; photonic devices include active and passive components; integration and packaging include innovations to assemable those devices to form photonic circuits on wafer or chip level for applications in high-speed communication, precision metrology, sensing, quantum and neuromporhic  computing, etc. The subcommittee welcomes submissions in, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Materials with novel electronic, optical, thermal, mechanical, and spin polarization and new properties, including the tradiational solid-state materials and emerging class of 2D materials (graphene, MoS2, black phosphorus, etc.).
• Material processing techniques: formation and processing of bulk and low-dimensional photonic materials and novel synthesis techniques for optical materials.
• Structured and engineered materials systems: periodic and aperiodic structures, photonic crystals, plasmonics, metamaterials, and metasurfaces, etc.
• Components and devices: lasers, modulators, detectors, reflectors, filters, couplers, (de)multiplexers and sensors, etc.
• Monolithic and heterogeneous integrations: blank and selective epitaxy, impurity disordering, organic/inorganic integration, nanomembrane and thin film stacking, dielectric/metallic integration.
• Novel substrate integration/packaging techniques, including conventional semiconductors (III-Vs, Si, sapphire, etc), glass, plastics, conformal and flexible substrates.
• Packaging techniques: optical interposer, electronic, optical, mechanical device co-integration, 3D integration, fiber-to-chip attachment, polymer waveguides and waveguide arrays, housings and systems on chip, recent advances in manufacturing and packaging facilities supporting non-telecom photonics platforms.

This sub-committee solicits papers on analysis, modeling, demonstration, and implementation of digital optical networks and systems, ranging from telecom and datacom applications to radio-over-fiber and free-space. The topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

Optical Fiber Transmission Systems and Subsystems

• Optical modulation, detection, coding, and digital signal processing in single mode fibers and spatial division multiplexing systems
• Impairments specific to digital optical fiber communication systems (e.g., fiber nonlinearity, dispersion, concatenated filtering, multi-path interference, linear and nonlinear crosstalk of WDM channels, cores, or modes)
• Optical and electronic mitigation of impairments in digital optical fiber communication systems
• Machine learning methods for signal processing and network planning and design
• All-optical signal processing
• Design, performance and control of network elements and nodes

Core and Metro Optical Networks

• Optical network architectures, design and performance evaluation
• Traffic modelling, routing algorithms and protocols
• Bandwidth allocation algorithms and protocols
• Optical performance monitoring for transport networks
• Energy efficient/green optical networks
• Optical network security
• Elastic networks and networking
• Transport network demonstrations, test-beds, and field trials

Access Optical Networks and Systems

• High-speed optical access system technologies and applications 
• WDM-PON, TDM-PON, TWDM-PON and other multiple access PON technologies
• PON virtualization and network function virtualization applied to optical access
• Energy efficient optical access networks 
• FTTx and next-generation passive optical networks
• Access network demonstrations, test-beds, and field trials

Datacom and Computercom Networks and Systems

• Optical interconnect technologies (WDM/CWDM interconnects for integrated optics and parallel modules)
• Parallel optical coupling between fibers, chips and modules
• Optical interconnection network interfaces, protocols, arbitration and flow control
• Optical switching devices, architectures, and control schemes for data centers
• On-chip optical networks and integrated computer architectures
• Interconnection network architectures for datacenters

Radio-over-Fiber and Free Space Optical Systems
Radio-over-fiber and free-space optical systems, which are concerned with the development and improvement of broadband wireless communication systems and networks.

• Radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems including analog and digital transport
• Hybrid wireless-optical systems
• Visible and IR free-space optical communication systems, including visible light communications (VLC) and under-water communications. 

The subcommittee on Optical Fiber Technology encompasses all aspects of optical fiber technology. This includes designs, materials, processing, measurements, propagation properties, coatings, cables and connectors, passive devices and components, amplifiers and lasers and active components, specialty- (both silica and non-silica based), micro- and nano-fibers, sensors, and probes. Burgeoning applications, such as, the use of few- and multi-mode and multi-core optical fibers for space division multiplexing, endoscopic imaging, and encryption, the use of conventional and low loss optical fibers for quantum communication, and Rayleigh, Brillouin, and Raman based distributed acoustic, strain, and temperature sensing are welcome.

• Optical fiber designs, materials and processing
• Optical fiber measurements and propagation properties
• Optical fiber coatings
• Optical fiber cables and connectors
• Passive optical fiber devices and components
• Fiber amplifiers and lasers and active fiber components
• Specialty fiber (both silica and non-silica based)
• Micro and nano-fibers
• Fiber sensors
• Fiber optic probes
• New applications of optical fibers

The optical interconnects (OI) technical area is concerned with technical advances pertaining to the design and/or realization of components, devices, and architectures motivated to support high-speed optical communication at all levels – from digital to analogue, from intra-chip, chip-to-chip, board-to-board, to module-to-module technologies. The OI subcommittee solicits papers in the following topic areas:

• Optics for the datacenter and RF communications (e.g. silicon photonics, VCSELs, etc.)
• Passive components (e.g. waveguides, WDM components, optical I/O, etc.)
• Active components (e.g. lasers, switches, modulators, and photodetectors for high speed/bandwidth interconnection)
• Integration and packaging solutions
• Advanced modulation or signaling schemes
• Advanced multiplexing schemes
• Switching and signal routing technologies
• Transceiver and module technologies
• Other emerging or novel interconnection solutions (e.g. free-space, underwater, etc.)

The topic focuses is on photonic engineering solutions and technologies for quantum information science. These encompass complex systems such communication links, high capacity quantum channels, optical networks and photonic processing circuits as well as components comprising such systems, such as quantum gates and memories, quantum encoders and transducers. We are interested in on-chip hybrid quantum photonic integration technologies and novel light-matter interactions paradigms as well as methods and approaches to creation, manipulation, storage, control and transmission of entangled quantum states. Novel applications of optical quantum processors and networks as well as technologies that enable these applications and functionalities in communication, sensing, metrology, distributed computing and quantum information processing.

In recent years there has been substantial progress in the field of fiber optic, free-space optical (FSO), and microwave photonic systems on a variety of commercial, mobile, and military platforms. With the advances in high-speed optical components, subsystems and photonic integration architectures, these trends are expected to increase.  As applications expand, it is critical for the community to assess the opportunities and challenges associated with deploying microwave photonic and FSO systems in the field and on platforms while requiring operation in challenging and sometimes harsh environments. The AVFOP technical subcommittee solicits papers on recent advances in this multidisciplinary field, including:

• Components for analog systems (including low noise lasers, modulators, and photodetectors for microwave, millimeter wave, and terahertz frequencies)
• Novel modeling / simulation and demonstrations of microwave photonic (MWP) and FSO components and systems, including monolithic, heterogeneous, and hybrid MWP integrated platforms
• Photonic signal generation and characterization for microwave, millimeter-wave, and terahertz applications
• RF Photonic Transport / RF over Fiber Systems
• LADAR/LiDAR systems and applications
• FSO communication links for air and ground vehicles
• Qualification and packaging of photonic components, systems, and standards for field and platform applications in harsh environments
• MWP subsystems and integration of photonic-electronic platforms, including photonic filtering, conversion between analog and digital signals, and manipulation of microwave amplitude and phase in the optical domain
• Vehicle optical network architectures, wavelength division multiplexing, and components
• Operation and maintenance of fielded photonic systems

Biophotonics and biomedical optics describes the interaction of light with biological molecules, cells, and tissues. It covers diagnostic sensing and imaging applications as well as therapeutic uses of light. The Biophotonics subcommittee is soliciting papers in this multi-disciplinary field, covering the development, or refinement, of instruments and methods involving optics and photonics technology for applications in life sciences and biomedicine. The conference focuses on the technical and engineering aspects of new technologies and innovative approaches for sensing, imaging, signal and image processing, optical actuation, and therapy, rather than translation of biophotonics to biological and medical applications.

Specific topics of interest include instruments, devices, methods, algorithms, and materials for:

• Imaging of cells and tissues:
  • Microscopy, including high-throughput, high-speed and super-resolution strategies
  • Optical tomography, including optical coherence tomography, photoacoustic imaging, and diffuse optical tomography
  • Spatial frequency domain and spectroscopic imaging
• Dynamic light scattering techniques including diffusing wave spectroscopy and diffuse correlation spectroscopy
• Endoscopy and other guided-wave implementations of imaging, such as catheters and needles
• Biomedical spectroscopy, including Raman, fluorescence, and other techniques
• Wavefront engineering for biomedical imaging, such as adaptive optics, light-sheet imaging, and imaging through scattering media
• Computational imaging and computation and modeling in imaging and sensing
• Materials (nano-, meta-, plasmonic) to enable emerging biophotonics applications
• Biosensors, such as point-of-care devices, fiber sensors, and lab-on-chip, including micro- and opto-fluidics
• Light and photonics-based techniques and procedures in biological manipulation, including optical trapping and actuation
• Therapeutic uses of light and photonics-based technology