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Topic · Biomedical Engineering

Advanced optical system design

Advanced optical system design is a research topic within Biomedical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 15k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the advancements in freeform optics design and fabrication, including topics such as compound eyes, LED lens, microlens array, optical design, imaging systems, fabrication techniques, illumination optics, digital cameras, and biologically inspired optics.

  • Freeform Optics
  • Compound Eyes
  • LED Lens
  • Microlens Array
  • Optical Design
  • Imaging Systems
  • Fabrication Techniques
  • Illumination Optics
  • Digital Cameras
  • Biologically Inspired Optics
Research works
15k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+3%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
48% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Advanced optical system design

Which countries lead Advanced optical system design research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (774 and 279 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 774 works
  2. 2 United States 279 works
  3. 3 Germany 106 works
  4. 4 Russia 99 works
  5. 5 Japan 74 works
  6. 6 South Korea 72 works
  7. 7 France 61 works
  8. 8 Taiwan 60 works
  9. 9 India 56 works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 49 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 47.5%United States: 17.1%Germany: 6.5%Russia: 6.1%6 others listed: 22.8%48%largest
China774 · 47.5%United States279 · 17.1%Germany106 · 6.5%Russia99 · 6.1%6 others listed371 · 22.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Advanced optical system design research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Advanced optical system design research, followed by University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Institute of Technology.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 122 works
  2. 2 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 44 works
  3. 3 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 38 works
  4. 4 Changchun University of Science and TechnologyChina 30 works
  5. 5 University of ArizonaUnited States 22 works
  6. 6 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 22 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 20 works
  8. 8 Zhejiang UniversityChina 20 works
  9. 9 ITMO UniversityRussia 17 works
  10. 10 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 15 works

Who are the leading researchers in Advanced optical system design?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Advanced optical system design include George M. Whitesides, Hua Zhang and Han Zhang.

  1. 1 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  2. 2 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  3. 3 Han Zhang China 161k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Advanced optical system design?

The most cited paper in Advanced optical system design is "Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light" (Max Born, Emil Wolf, Eugene Hecht, 2000), with 4,134 citations. Next come "Electromagnetic diffraction in optical systems, II. Structure of the image field in an aplanatic system" (3,073) and "HIRES: the high-resolution echelle spectrometer on the Keck 10-m Telescope" (1,645).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light Max Born, Emil Wolf, Eugene Hecht · Physics Today Oct 2000 4,134
2 Electromagnetic diffraction in optical systems, II. Structure of the image field in an aplanatic system Bukola A. Richards, E. A. De Wolf · Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A Mathematical and Physical Sciences 15 Dec 1959 3,073
3 HIRES: the high-resolution echelle spectrometer on the Keck 10-m Telescope Steven S. Vogt et al. · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE Conference paper Jun 1994 1,645
4 Free-space optical communication through atmospheric turbulence channels Xiaoming Zhu, Joseph M. Kahn · IEEE Transactions on Communications Aug 2002 1,636
5 Digital cameras with designs inspired by the arthropod eye Young Min Song, Yizhu Xie, Viktor Malyarchuk et al. · Nature 30 Apr 2013 1,152
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Advanced optical system design research done?

The largest centres of Advanced optical system design research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Changchun (China) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Tucson and Changchun.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 220 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 67 works
  3. 3 ChangchunChina 57 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 48 works
  5. 5 HangzhouChina 31 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 30 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 28 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 28 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 26 works
  10. 10 SeoulSouth Korea 24 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. TucsonUS · 23.4 works15×
  2. ChangchunCN · 57.3 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Advanced optical system design than the world average.

See Advanced optical system design on the map

Where is the best place to study Advanced optical system design?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology and Zhejiang University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 16.94%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Chines…Zhejiang UniversityTsinghua UniversityBeijing Institute of…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 89.018.8%15.7×44 +49.3%
2Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 77.113.9%18.6×38 +16.5%
3Zhejiang UniversityChina 72.317.6%4.3×20 +65.3%
4Tsinghua UniversityChina 65.517.5%3.6×14 +5.7%
5Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 61.621.7%2.1×10 +142.2%
6Changchun University of Science and TechnologyChina 61.510.3%78.3×30 +31.2%
7Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 58.220.8%3.5×10 +60.7%
8University of RochesterUnited States 56.911.6%19.6×15 -34.4%
9Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 56.325.2%3.7×12 -18.3%
10Fudan UniversityChina 55.012.0%4.6×13 +157.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Advanced optical system design, country by country

Is Advanced optical system design research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 3% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2010. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced optical system design.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Advanced optical system design as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0085% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Advanced optical system design0.0088% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Advanced optical system design over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Advanced optical system design9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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