Advances in the Propagation and Coherence of Light
A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Interaction Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 36
Special Issue Editors
Interests: optical singularity; orbital angular momentum; partially coherence; propagation property; coherence structure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: optical coherence; coherence structure; propagation; optical tweezers
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Coherence is an intrinsic property of a light field, arising from correlations between two or more different spatial or temporal points of fluctuating electric fields. The well-known van Cittert–Zernike theorem demonstrates that a spatially incoherent source will generate a spatially coherent field in the process of propagation. The spatial coherence properties of a light source may cause changes in its spectrum, degree of polarization, and angular momentum. The propagation and coherence of light play a significant role in a wide range of applications, such as free-space optical communication and light–matter interaction.
We invite contributions that explore the theme of this Special Issue, which is titled “Advances in the Propagation and Coherence of Light”. Theoretical, numerical, and experimental papers are welcome. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following research areas:
- Spatial coherent properties of light;
- Temporal coherent properties of light;
- Propagation of light fields with different spatial and temporal coherence states;
- Structured light sources with different coherence states;
- Spatio-temporal coherent light fields;
- Propagation of light fields with spatio-temporal coherence;
- Partially coherent light fields;
- The effect of optical coherence on the interaction of light with different media.
Prof. Dr. Yongtao Zhang
Dr. Xinlei Zhu
Dr. Jing Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- spatial coherence
- temporal coherence
- spatio-temporal coherence
- coherence structures
- structured light
- light field propagation
- partial coherence
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