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Topic · Surfaces, Coatings and Films

Optical Coatings and Gratings

Optical Coatings and Gratings is a research topic within Surfaces, Coatings and Films. Science Explorer counts 32k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the development and application of advanced antireflective materials, including nanostructured coatings, thin-film gratings, and biomimetic surfaces. The research explores techniques such as glancing angle deposition and photonic crystals to improve optical properties for applications in spectroscopy, solar cells, and nanofabrication.

  • Antireflective Coatings
  • Nanostructures
  • Thin-Film Materials
  • Optical Gratings
  • Biomimetic Surfaces
  • Glancing Angle Deposition
  • Photonic Crystals
  • Spectroscopy
  • Solar Cells
  • Nanofabrication
Research works
32k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-11%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
43% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Optical Coatings and Gratings

Which countries lead Optical Coatings and Gratings research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.1k and 457 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.1k works
  2. 2 United States 457 works
  3. 3 Japan 166 works
  4. 4 Germany 161 works
  5. 5 Russia 155 works
  6. 6 India 153 works
  7. 7 South Korea 126 works
  8. 8 France 124 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 75 works
  10. 10 Taiwan 73 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: 42.8%United States: 17.6%Japan: 6.4%Germany: 6.2%6 others listed: 27.1%43%largest
China1,113 · 42.8%United States457 · 17.6%Japan166 · 6.4%Germany161 · 6.2%6 others listed706 · 27.1%

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

Which institutions lead Optical Coatings and Gratings research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Optical Coatings and Gratings research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 137 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 63 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 48 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 43 works
  5. 5 Zhejiang UniversityChina 28 works
  6. 6 Tsinghua UniversityChina 26 works
  7. 7 Changchun University of Science and TechnologyChina 22 works
  8. 8 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 22 works
  9. 9 Guangdong University of TechnologyChina 21 works
  10. 10 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 20 works

Who are the leading researchers in Optical Coatings and Gratings?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Optical Coatings and Gratings include Zhong Lin Wang, Michaël Grätzel and George M. Whitesides.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Michaël Grätzel Switzerland 458k citations
  3. 3 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  4. 4 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  5. 5 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  6. 6 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k citations
  7. 7 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  8. 8 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  9. 9 Younan Xia United States 207k citations
  10. 10 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k 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 Optical Coatings and Gratings?

The most cited paper in Optical Coatings and Gratings is "Surface plasmon resonance sensors: review" (Jiřı́ Homola, Sinclair S. Yee, Günter Gauglitz, 1999), with 5,472 citations. Next come "Photonic crystals: putting a new twist on light" (3,153) and "Geometrical Theory of Diffraction*" (3,084).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Surface plasmon resonance sensors: review Jiřı́ Homola, Sinclair S. Yee, Günter Gauglitz · Sensors and Actuators B Chemical 25 Jan 1999 5,472
2 Photonic crystals: putting a new twist on light John D. Joannopoulos, Pierre R. Villeneuve, Shanhui Fan · Nature 13 Mar 1997 3,153
3 Geometrical Theory of Diffraction* Joseph Bishop Keller · Journal of the Optical Society of America Feb 1962 3,084
4 Formulation for stable and efficient implementation of the rigorous coupled-wave analysis of binary gratings M. G. Jim Moharam, Thomas K. Gaylord, Eric B. Grann et al. · Journal of the Optical Society of America A Open access May 1995 2,683
5 Rigorous coupled-wave analysis of planar-grating diffraction M. G. Jim Moharam, Thomas K. Gaylord · Journal of the Optical Society of America Jul 1981 2,228
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Optical Coatings and Gratings research done?

The largest centres of Optical Coatings and Gratings research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Jena and Rochester.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 251 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 104 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 65 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 62 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 52 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 51 works
  7. 7 ChangchunChina 51 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 48 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 47 works
  10. 10 WuhanChina 46 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. JenaDE · 24.2 works18×
  2. RochesterUS · 20.5 works9.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Optical Coatings and Gratings than the world average.

See Optical Coatings and Gratings on the map

Where is the best place to study Optical Coatings and Gratings?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang University and University of Southampton 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%mean 13.84%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Southa…Shenzhen UniversityZhejiang UniversityUniversity of Chines…
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 78.312.7%10.2×48 +55.8%
2Zhejiang UniversityChina 69.315.8%3.6×28 +27.5%
3University of SouthamptonUnited Kingdom 58.617.2%5.5×8 -2.6%
4Shenzhen UniversityChina 58.116.4%4.8×10 +24.7%
5University of RochesterUnited States 55.58.3%12.3×16 +9.5%
6Korea Advanced Institute of Science and TechnologySouth Korea 55.39.6%10.5×14 +12.6%
7Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 54.119.7%2.8×14 -24.2%
8Southeast UniversityChina 53.011.4%3.8×16 -6.1%
9Nanjing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 52.618.3%10.2×12 +0.1%
10Eindhoven University of TechnologyNetherlands 51.99.0%9.8×10 +89.7%

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 Optical Coatings and Gratings, country by country

Is Optical Coatings and Gratings research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 11% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2013.

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 Optical Coatings and Gratings as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.013% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Optical Coatings and Gratings0.013% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Optical Coatings and Gratings 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%Optical Coatings and Gratings9.9% 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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