The fact that the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to three laser scientists — Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou, and Donna Strickland — underscores the significance of lasers, from their basic uses to their importance in biomedical science.

The Optics and Photonics International Congress 2019 (OPIC2019), one of the largest international conferences for optics and photonics, will be held from April 22 to 26, at the Pacifico Yokohama in Japan. OPIC2019 is co-chaired by Sadao Nakai (Osaka University), Christopher P.J. Barty (University of California Irvine), Reinhart Poprawe (Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology), and Ruxin Li (Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Science).


The OPIC 2019 plenary session will be held on Tuesday, April, 25. The following four plenary speakers will cover topics ranging from high-power ultrafast laser physics to the quantum neural network.

Ursula Keller, professor at ETH Zurich. In “Recent Advances in SESAM-Mode Locked High-Power Thin-Disk Lasers,” she will explain how thin-disk oscillators stand out as offering excellent beam quality and noise properties, multi-MHz repetition rates, and high power, directly from a relatively compact laser oscillator cavity.

Ruxin Li, director, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. In “10-PW and 100-PW Lasers: Paving the Way for Exploring the Next Frontier of High-Field Physics,” he will talk about how the development of ultrahigh-peak-power, ultrafast laser facilities worldwide has entered a new stage. Several projects are in either the preparatory phase or the implementation phase for delivering 10-PW and even 100- to 200-PW laser pulses. He will review this unprecedented advancement of high-intensity ultrafast lasers and give an update on the progress of the 10 PW Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF).

Mike Dunne, associate laboratory director, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and professor of photon science, Stanford University. In “‘A Billion Times Brighter’: An Overview of the Revolution Underway in X-Ray Science,” he will discuss x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) as a powerful new tool able to produce atomic resolution moving pictures of how atomic, chemical, and biological systems evolve on ultrafast timescales. This opens up revolutionary opportunities for the study of next-generation pharmaceuticals, energy technology, quantum materials, catalysis, and the physics of the stars and planets. His talk will cover both recent progress and the future outlook on major developments under way in this field.

Yoshihisa Yamamoto, program manager of ImPACT, Japan Science and Technology Agency. In “Quantum Neural Network: Coherent Ising Machine, XY Machine, and Recurrent Neural Network,” he will present the basic concept, operational principle, and observed performance of a novel computing machine based on the network of degenerate optical parametric oscillators.

OPIC2019 features the following 14 specialized subconferences: the 8th Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources Conference (ALPS), the 5th Biomedical Imaging and Sensing Conference (BISC), the International Conference on High Energy Density Science (ICHED), the International Conference on Nanophotonics and Nano-optoelectronics (ICNN), the IoT Enabling Sensing/Network/AI and Photonics Conference (IoT-SNAP), Information Photonics (IP), the 8th Laser Display and Lighting Conference (LDC), the 7th International Conference on Light-Emitting Devices and Their Industrial Applications (LEDIA), the 7th Laser Ignition and Giant-microphotonics Conference (LIC), Laser Solutions for Space and the Earth (LSSE), the 6th Optical Manipulation and Structured Materials Conference (OMC), Optical Technology and Measurement for Industrial Applications (OPTM), the 1st Optical Wireless and Fiber Power Transmission Conference (OWPT); and the International Conference on X-ray Optics and Applications (XOPT).

The Optics and Photonics International Exhibition 2019 (OPIE2019) will be held alongside OPIC2019. More than 15,000 visitors attended OPIE2018, which featured companies from around the world demonstrating the latest light-based technologies and laser products.