Guifang Li, the new Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Optics and Photonics, outlines his vision for the Journal.

Editor-in-Chief Govind Agrawal reflects on his term and bids farewell.

We present in this erratum a supplement to the review of experimental implementations of the Kramers–Kronig receiver in Section 20 of our paper [Adv. Opt. Photon. 11, 480 (2019) [CrossRef] ] describing the work performed at Nokia Bell Labs, Germany. This addition does not affect to any extent the conclusions presented in the original paper.

Multiphoton microscopy has emerged as a ubiquitous tool for studying microscopic structure and function across a broad range of disciplines. As such, the intent of this paper is to present a comprehensive resource for the construction and performance evaluation of a multiphoton microscope that will be understandable to the broad range of scientific fields that presently exploit, or wish to begin exploiting, this powerful technology. With this in mind, we have developed a guide to aid in the design of a multiphoton microscope. We discuss source selection, optical management of dispersion, image-relay systems with scan optics, objective-lens selection, single-element light-collection theory, photon-counting detection, image rendering, and finally, an illustrated guide for building an example microscope.

We present a comprehensive overview of sensor technology exploiting optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonances. After a short introduction we begin by detailing the fundamental principles and theory of WGMs in optical microcavities and the transduction mechanisms frequently employed for sensing purposes. Key recent theoretical contributions to the modeling and analysis of WGM systems are highlighted. Subsequently we review the state of the art of WGM sensors by outlining efforts made to date to improve current detection limits. Proposals in this vein are numerous and range, for example, from plasmonic enhancements and active cavities to hybrid optomechanical sensors, which are already working in the shot noise limited regime. In parallel to furthering WGM sensitivity, efforts to improve the time resolution are beginning to emerge. We therefore summarize the techniques being pursued in this vein. Ultimately WGM sensors aim for real-world applications, such as measurements of force and temperature, or alternatively gas and biosensing. Each such application is thus reviewed in turn, and important achievements are discussed. Finally, we adopt a more forward-looking perspective and discuss the outlook of WGM sensors within both a physical and biological context and consider how they may yet push the detection envelope further.

The physical world around us is three-dimensional (3D), yet traditional display devices can show only two-dimensional (2D) flat images that lack depth (i.e., the third dimension) information. This fundamental restriction greatly limits our ability to perceive and to understand the complexity of real-world objects. Nearly 50% of the capability of the human brain is devoted to processing visual information [Human Anatomy & Physiology (Pearson, 2012)]. Flat images and 2D displays do not harness the brain's power effectively. With rapid advances in the electronics, optics, laser, and photonics fields, true 3D display technologies are making their way into the marketplace. 3D movies, 3D TV, 3D mobile devices, and 3D games have increasingly demanded true 3D display with no eyeglasses (autostereoscopic). Therefore, it would be very beneficial to readers of this journal to have a systematic review of state-of-the-art 3D display technologies.

As author of the very first review in the inaugural issue of the Journal, I provide my perspective on how the field has developed since then and the effect that publishing in Advances in Optics and Photonics has had on my career.

The nature of light, extending from the optical to the x-ray regime, is reviewed from a diffraction point of view by comparing field-based statistical optics and photon-based quantum optics approaches. The topic is introduced by comparing historical diffraction concepts based on wave interference, Dirac’s notion of photon self-interference, Feynman’s interference of space–time photon probability amplitudes, and Glauber’s formulation of coherence functions based on photon detection. The concepts are elucidated by a review of how the semiclassical combination of the disparate photon and wave concepts have been used to describe light creation, diffraction, and detection. The origin of the fundamental diffraction limit is then discussed in both wave and photon pictures. By use of Feynman’s concept of probability amplitudes associated with independent photons, we show that quantum electrodynamics, the complete theory of light, reduces in lowest order to the conventional wave formalism of diffraction. As an introduction to multi-photon effects, we then review fundamental one- and two-photon experiments and detection schemes, in particular the seminal Hanbury Brown–Twiss experiment. The formal discourse of the paper starts with a treatment of first-order coherence theory. In first order, the statistical optics and quantum optics formulations of coherence are shown to be equivalent. This is elucidated by a discussion of Zernike’s powerful theorem of partial coherence propagation, a cornerstone of statistical optics, followed by its quantum derivation based on the interference of single-photon probability amplitudes. The treatment is then extended to second-order coherence theory, where the equivalence of wave and particle descriptions is shown to break down. This is illustrated by considering two photons whose space–time probability amplitudes are correlated through nonlinear birth processes, resulting in entanglement or cloning. In both cases, the two-photon diffraction patterns are shown to exhibit resolution below the conventional diffraction limit, defined by the one-photon diffraction patterns. The origin of the reduction is shown to arise from the interference of two-photon probability amplitudes. By comparing first- and second-order diffraction, it is shown that the conventional first-order concept of partial coherence with its limits of chaoticity and first-order coherence has the second-order analogue of partial entanglement, with its limits corresponding to two entangled photons (“entangled biphotons”) and two cloned photons (“cloned biphotons”), the latter being second-order coherent. The concept of cloned biphotons is extended to the case of n cloned photons, resulting in a 1/n reduction of the diffraction limit. In the limit of nth-order coherence, all photons within the nth-order collective state are shown to propagate on particle like trajectories, reproducing the 0th-order ray-optics picture. These results are discussed in terms of the linearity of quantum mechanics and Heisenberg’s space–momentum uncertainty principle. A general concept of coherence based on photon density is developed that in first order is equivalent to the conventional wave-based picture.

A tomographic measurement is a ubiquitous tool for estimating the properties of quantum states, and its application is known as quantum state tomography (QST). The process involves manipulating single photons in a sequence of projective measurements, often to construct a density matrix from which other information can be inferred, and is as laborious as it is complex. Here we unravel the steps of a QST and outline how it may be demonstrated in a fast and simple manner with intense (classical) light. We use scalar beams in a time reversal approach to simulate the outcome of a QST and exploit non-separability in classical vector beams as a means to treat the latter as a “classically entangled” state for illustrating QSTs directly. We provide a complete do-it-yourself resource for the practical implementation of this approach, complete with tutorial video, which we hope will facilitate the introduction of this core quantum tool into teaching and research laboratories alike. Our work highlights the value of using intense classical light as a means to study quantum systems and in the process provides a tutorial on the fundamentals of QSTs.

Self-interference holography is a common technique to record holograms of incoherently illuminated scenes. In this review, we survey the main milestones in the topic of self-interference incoherent digital holography from two main points of view. First, we review the prime architectures of optical hologram recorders over more than 50 years. Second, we discuss some of the key applications of these recorders in the field of imaging in general, and for 3D super-resolution imaging, fluorescence microscopy, partial aperture imaging, seeing through a scattering medium, and spectral imaging in particular. We summarize this overview with a general perspective on this research topic and its prospective directions.

This publisher’s note corrects errors in the funding and references of Adv. Opt. Photon. 10, 703 (2018) [CrossRef] .

This review paper addresses topics of fabrication, testing, alignment, and as-built performance of reflective space optics for the next generation of telescopes across the x-ray to far-infrared spectrum. The technology presented in the manuscript represents the most promising methods to enable a next level of astronomical observation capabilities for space-based telescopes as motivated by the science community. While the technology to produce the proposed telescopes does not exist in its final form, the optics industry is making steady and impressive progress toward these goals across all disciplines. We hope that through sharing these developments in context of the science objectives, further connections and improvements are enabled to push the envelope of the technology.

We review recent developments in directly modulated lasers (DMLs) with low operating energy for datacom and computercom applications. Key issues are their operating energy and the cost for employing them in these applications. To decrease the operating energy, it is important to reduce the active volume of the laser while maintaining the cavity Q-factor or photon lifetime in the cavity. Therefore, how to achieve high-reflectivity mirrors has been the main challenge in reducing the operating energy. In terms of the required output power from the lasers, the required input power into the photodetector and the transmission distance determine the lower limit of laser active volume. Therefore, the operating energy and output power are in a trade-off relationship. In designing the lasers, the cavity volume, quantum well number, and optical confinement factor are critical parameters. For reducing the cost, it is important to fabricate a large-scale photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising DMLs, an optical multiplexer, and monitor photodetectors because the lower assembly cost reduces the overall cost. In this context, silicon (Si) photonics technology plays a key role in fabricating large-scale PICs with low cost, and heterogeneous integration of DMLs and Si photonics devices has attracted much attention. We will describe fabrication technologies for heterogeneous integration and experimental results for DMLs on a Si substrate.

Nonimaging optics is the theory of thermodynamically efficient optics and as such, depends more on thermodynamics than on optics. Historically, nonimaging optics that work as ideal concentrators have been discovered through such heuristic ideas as “edge ray involutes,” “string method,” “simultaneous multiple surface,” and “tailored edge ray concentrator,” without a consistent theoretical definition of what “ideal” means. In this tutorial, we provide a thermodynamic perspective of nonimaging optical designs to shine light on the commonality of all these designing ideas, or what “ideal” nonimaging design means. Hence, in this paper, a condition for the “best” design is proposed based purely on thermodynamic arguments, which we believe have profound consequences. Thermodynamics may also be the most intuitive way for a reader who is new to this subject to understand or study it within a certain framework, instead of learning from sporadic designing methodologies. This way of looking at the problem of efficient concentration and illumination depends on probabilities, the ingredients of entropy, and information theory, while “optics” in the conventional sense recedes into the background. We attempt to link the key concept of nonimaging optics, étendue, with the radiative heat transfer concept of view factor, which may be more familiar to some readers. However, we do not want to limit the readers to a single thermodynamic understanding of this subject. Therefore, two alternative perspectives of nonimaging optics will also be introduced and used throughout the tutorial: the definition of a nonimaging optics design according to the Hilbert integral, and the phase space analysis of the ideal design. The tutorial will be organized as follows: Section 1 highlights the difference between nonimaging and imaging optics, Section 2 describes the thermodynamic understanding of nonimaging optics, Section 3 presents the alternative phase space representation of nonimaging optics, Section 4 describes the most basic nonimaging designs using Hottel’s strings, Section 5 discusses the geometric flow line designing method, and Section 6 summarizes the various concepts of nonimaging optics.

This tutorial aims to provide an extensive overview of methods of generating and shaping light at new frequencies by using nonlinear metasurfaces. We first review methods of manipulating light by using linear metasurfaces, on the basis of local control of the amplitude and phase of transmitted and reflected light. To extend these principles to nonlinear metasurfaces, we first introduce the mechanisms and principles underlying nonlinear interactions in metasurfaces. We then show how to use these principles to control the phase, amplitude, and polarization of emitted nonlinear radiation and how, through careful spatial arrangement of single nonlinear elements on a metasurface, it is possible to tailor the shape of the light emitted through nonlinear interaction.

This publisher’s note corrects a sentence in the second paragraph of p. 528 [Adv. Opt. Photon. 9, 504 (2017) [CrossRef] ].

This publisher’s note corrects a sentence in the second paragraph of p. 528 [Adv. Opt. Photon. 9, 504 (2017) [CrossRef] ].