About the journal

Aims and scope

Photonics — the scientific study and application of light — has evolved to become a key technology behind many devices found in the modern home, factory and research lab. Today, the field is both a Nobel Prize winning science and a billion-dollar industry, underpinning applications such as fibre-optic communication, data storage, flat-panel displays and materials processing.

Nature Photonics is a monthly journal dedicated to this exciting field that publishes top-quality, peer-reviewed research in all areas of light generation, manipulation and detection.

Coverage extends from research into the fundamental properties of light and how it interacts with matter through to the latest designs of optoelectronic device and emerging applications that exploit photons.

The journal covers topics including:

• Lasers, LEDs and other light sources
• Imaging, detectors and sensors
• Optoelectronic devices and components
• Novel materials and engineered structures
• Physics of light propagation, interaction and behaviour
• Quantum optics and cryptography
• Ultrafast photonics
• Biophotonics
• Optical data storage  
• Spectroscopy
• Fibre optics and optical communications
• Solar energy and photovoltaics
• Displays
• Terahertz technology
  

In common with other NPG journals in the physical sciences, Nature Photonics publishes review articles, research papers, News and Views pieces and research highlights summarizing the latest scientific findings in optoelectronics. This is complemented by a unique mix of articles dedicated to the business side of the industry covering areas such as technology commercialization and market analysis.

NPG and Photonics

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) has a rich history in publishing prestigious photonics research. For example, over the past 50 years Nature has featured seminal papers on topics such as first experimental LASER (Maiman, 1960) and the first polymer LED (Burroughs, 1990), see photonics highlights.

Nature Photonics is a peer-reviewed journal publishing original research of the highest quality and combining this with in-depth analysis of important emerging optical technologies, their applications and status of commercialization. In essence, Nature Photonics will publish leading photonics research that will help enable the applications of tomorrow. The result is a unique publication that is an invaluable information resource for scientists in both academia and industry.

Alongside Nature Photonics, Nature will continue to publish photonics papers of exceptional quality that appeal to its wide and multidisciplinary readership. Nature Physics will focus on those photonics papers which deal with fundamental science; Nature Materials those which address the underlying properties of optical and photonics related materials; and Nature Nanotechnology those which involve engineered structures on the nanoscale.

ISSN

The international standard serial numbers (ISSN) for Nature Photonics are 1749 4885 (print) and 1749 4893 (online).