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Topic · Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Photonic and Optical Devices

Photonic and Optical Devices is a research topic within Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Science Explorer counts 155k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers advances in silicon photonics technology, including optical modulators, microcavities, nanophotonic waveguides, biosensors, integrated circuits, Raman lasers, whispering gallery mode devices, optofluidic technology, and on-chip interconnects.

  • Silicon Photonics
  • Optical Modulators
  • Microcavities
  • Nanophotonic Waveguides
  • Biosensors
  • Integrated Circuits
  • Raman Lasers
  • Whispering Gallery Mode
  • Optofluidic Technology
  • On-chip Interconnects
Research works
155k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
15k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
46% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Photonic and Optical Devices

Which countries lead Photonic and Optical Devices research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (7.9k and 2.9k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 7.9k works
  2. 2 United States 2.9k works
  3. 3 Japan 1.2k works
  4. 4 India 1.1k works
  5. 5 Germany 997 works
  6. 6 France 685 works
  7. 7 Russia 667 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 625 works
  9. 9 Canada 504 works
  10. 10 South Korea 478 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: 46.2%United States: 16.9%Japan: 7.1%India: 6.6%6 others listed: 23.1%46%largest
China7,894 · 46.2%United States2,894 · 16.9%Japan1,218 · 7.1%India1,126 · 6.6%6 others listed3,956 · 23.1%

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

Which institutions lead Photonic and Optical Devices research?

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

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 693 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 299 works
  3. 3 Zhejiang UniversityChina 242 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 212 works
  5. 5 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 188 works
  6. 6 Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 188 works
  7. 7 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 187 works
  8. 8 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 187 works
  9. 9 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 177 works
  10. 10 Tsinghua UniversityChina 131 works

Who are the leading researchers in Photonic and Optical Devices?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Photonic and Optical Devices include Zhong Lin Wang, Kostya S. Novoselov and Andre K. Geim.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  3. 3 Andre K. Geim United Kingdom 315k citations
  4. 4 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  5. 5 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  6. 6 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  7. 7 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  8. 8 Ben Zhong Tang China 261k citations
  9. 9 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  10. 10 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k 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 Photonic and Optical Devices?

The most cited paper in Photonic and Optical Devices is "Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations" (Hendrik J. Monkhorst, J.D. Pack, 1976), with 71,952 citations. Next come "Surface plasmon subwavelength optics" (11,670) and "Improved tetrahedron method for Brillouin-zone integrations" (7,345).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations Hendrik J. Monkhorst, J.D. Pack · Physical review. B, Solid state 15 Jun 1976 71,952
2 Surface plasmon subwavelength optics William L. Barnes, Alain Dereux, Thomas W. Ebbesen · Nature Aug 2003 11,670
3 Improved tetrahedron method for Brillouin-zone integrations Peter E. Blöchl, Ove Jepsen, O. K. Andersen · Physical review. B, Condensed matter 15 Jun 1994 7,345
4 Cavity optomechanics Markus Aspelmeyer, Tobias J. Kippenberg, Florian Marquardt · Reviews of Modern Physics Open access 30 Dec 2014 5,796
5 Surface plasmon resonance sensors: review Jiřı́ Homola, Sinclair S. Yee, Günter Gauglitz · Sensors and Actuators B Chemical 25 Jan 1999 5,472
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Photonic and Optical Devices research done?

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

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.6k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 673 works
  3. 3 TokyoJapan 541 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 506 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 449 works
  6. 6 HangzhouChina 438 works
  7. 7 ShenzhenChina 343 works
  8. 8 Xi'anChina 334 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 333 works
  10. 10 ChengduChina 293 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SkiptonGB · 22.1 works86×
  2. CoppellUS · 25.2 works81×
  3. AtsugiJP · 29.7 works34×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Photonic and Optical Devices on the map

Where is the best place to study Photonic and Optical Devices?

Among universities, judged by research, Zhejiang University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Northeastern University score highest, combining citation 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 12.72%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northeastern Univers…Zhejiang UniversityUniversity of Chines…Technical University…
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.

Citation 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
1Zhejiang UniversityChina 64.017.2%4.8×242 +65.4%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 57.412.3%5.8×178 +66.6%
3Northeastern UniversityChina 57.224.8%3.8×63 +12.9%
4Technical University of DenmarkDenmark 57.010.1%10.2×97 +23.7%
5California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 56.013.4%10.1×68 +17.1%
6Fudan UniversityChina 55.016.7%3.9×114 +72.0%
7University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 54.97.1%8.9×187 +24.8%
8Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 52.84.9%15.7×188 +22.5%
9Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 51.911.7%5.6×188 +0.8%
10Southeast UniversityChina 51.99.0%4.6×128 +39.1%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Photonic and Optical Devices, country by country

Is Photonic and Optical Devices research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Photonic and Optical Devices.

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 Photonic and Optical Devices as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.11% in 2024.

still counting0.10%0.20%0.30%Photonic and Optical Devices0.082% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Photonic and Optical Devices 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%Photonic and Optical Devices9.6% 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.

Questions people ask

Who leads photonics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Photonic and Optical Devices research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Zhejiang University. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (7.9k and 2.9k works in 2022-now).

All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

Discussion

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