Optics in 2004

The December 2004 issue of Optics & Photonics News (OPN) is a special issue that highlights the most exciting research to emerge in the preceding 12 months in optics. The area covered in the special issue, 'Optics in 2004', range from semiconductor optics to nanophotonics and from optical engineering to ultrafast technology. The issue comprises 31 summaries that represent the work of 155 authors out of the 104 submissions. The submissions were judged on the basis of some requirements which want that the accomplishments described had to have been published in a refereed journal in the year prior to publication in OPN, and the work had to be illustrated in a clear, concise manner, readily accessible to the at-large optics community.