Special Issue

Report on OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress 2016 (OPIC2016)
Yoshiaki KATO1 and Yasukazu IZAWA2
1Chair of OPIC2016 Organizing Committee, The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, 431-1202
2
Chair of OPIC2016 Steering Committee, Institute for Laser Technology, 1-8-4 Utsubo-honmachi, Nishi-ku, Osaka, 550-0004(Received June 10, 2016)
1．Introduction
OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress (OPIC)
has been held annually since 2012 at Yokohama as an international forum to present and discuss the most up-dated R & D
activities in optics and photonics over the world. The state-ofart technologies and products in optics and photonics are exhibited at the co-located and jointly organized OPIE (OPTICS& PHOTONICS International Exhibition).
OPIC2016 was held during May 17-20, 2016 at Pacifico
Yokohama Congress Center with Congress Co-Chairs: Kenichi Iga (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan), Andreas Ostendorf (Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany) and Christopher
P. J. Barty (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA)
(Fig. 1). OPIC2016 was organized by OPTICS and PHOTONICS International Council, with the support of ﬁve Ministriesof Japanese Government and Japan Business Foundation, andin cooperation with many research institutes and academic societies in Japan and foreign countries, as shown in Table 1.
OPIC is composed of Specialized International Conferences
covering broad-ranged ﬁelds in optics and photonics. One of
the unique features of OPIC is that each conference is handmade”, i.e. each Specialized International Conference isplanned and operated by the Conference Chair and his consortium of scientists, based on their own initiatives to strengthen
and advance the research and network in each speciﬁc ﬁeld.
This approach helps Conference Chairs to organize attractive
conferences with timely topics and up-dated speakers, andTable 1 Organization of OPIC2016.

OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress 2016 (OPIC2016)
Co-located with OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Exhibition
2016 (OPIE2016)
Organized by OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Council
Specialized International Conferences were Organized by
The Laser Society of Japan / The Japan Society of Applied Physics / Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University / Akasaki Research Center (ARC), Nagoya University / Japan Laser Processing
Society / The Micro Solid-Sate Photonics Group of The Laser Society of Japan / The Executive Committee of Laser Solution for Spaceand the Earth / RIKEN SPring-8 Center / Research Center for Ultra-Precision Science & Technology, Osaka University.
Supporting agencies for OPIC2016
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) / Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) /Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) / Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) / Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) / Keidanren (JapanBusiness Federation).
Cooperating agencies for OPIC2016
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) / New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) / Japan Science and TechnologyAgency(JST) / The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) / RIKEN / Atomic
Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) / The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research (JSPF)/ The Optical Society ofJapan / Optoelectronic Industry and Technology Development Association (OITDA) / Institute for Laser Technology (ILT) / Japan Photonics Council (JPC) / SPIE (USA) / OSA (USA) / Landesmesse
Stuttgart GmbH (Germany) / PIDA (Taiwan) / KAPID (Korea) /Photonics Media (USA).

also to broaden the research networks by continuing to holdthe conferences over several years.
2．OPIC2016 with record high participants

Fig. 1 Congress Co-Chairs of OPIC2016: Kenichi Iga,Andreas Ostendorf, and Christopher P. J. Barty(from left to right).
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OPIC2016 was composed of 11 Specialized InternationalConferences, the largest number since the beginning of OPIC,
owing to joining of 2 new Conferences: Laser Solution forSpace and the Earth (LSSE) and International Conference on
X-ray Optics, Detectors, Sources, and Their Applications(XOPT). These 11 Specialized International Conferences andthe Conference Chairs are shown below.

Report on OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress 2016 (OPIC2016)473

■ The 5th Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources (ALPSʼ16)
Chair: H. Yoneda (The University of Electro-Communications)■ Biomedical Imaging and Sensing Conference 2016(BISCʼ16)
Chair: T. Yatagai (Utsunomiya University)■ Conference on Laser Energy Science (CLES 2016)
Chair: H. Azechi (Osaka University)■ International Conference on High Energy Density Science 2016 (HEDS2016)
Chair: R. Kodama (Osaka University)■ The 4th International Conference on Light-Emitting Devices and Their Industrial Applications (LEDIAʼ16)
Chair: H. Amano (Nagoya University)■ The 4th Laser Ignition Conference 2016 (LICʼ16)
Chair: T. Taira (Institute for Molecular Science)■ Laser Solution for Space and the Earth (LSSE2016)
Chair: T. Ebisuzaki (RIKEN)■ The 3rd Optical Manipulation Conference (OMCʼ16)
Chair: T. Omatsu (Chiba University)■ The 5th Paciﬁc-rim Laser Damage Conference (PLDʼ16)

May 18, respectively.
Records of OPIC and Specialized International Conferences
during 2012-2016 are summarized in Table 2. Some of theSpecialized Conferences have been organized with different
titles by the same or related communities and some Conferences were held at other countries for convenience to participants, as shown in italics in Table 2.
Table 2 shows that OPIC has been growing steadily as seen,for example, from the number of participants and the numberof participants per conference. Accelerating this trend,OPIC2016 was held with record high numbers in specialized
conferences (11), papers presented (737), participants (1028),
fraction of foreign participants (32 %), and participating countries (31). The top 10 countries, in order of the number of participants (shown in parentheses), are Japan (700), China (67),USA (50), Taiwan (48), Korea (37), Germany (27), France(25), UK (18), Russia (11) and Australia (6). (Here country
refers to the place where participantʼs affiliation is located.)
These statistics show that OPIC is becoming an international
forum with broad scientiﬁc scopes, attended by well-balanced
international communities in Asia, north America, Europe andChairs: T. Jitsuno (Osaka University), Jianda Shao(SIOM) and W. Rudolph (University of New Mexico)■ The 2nd Smart Laser Processing Conference (SLPC2016)
Chairs: Y. Okamoto (Okayama University) and R. Poprawe (Fraunhofer ILT)
■ International Conference on X-ray Optics, Detectors,Sources, and their Applications 2016 (XOPTʼ16)
Chairs: T. Ishikawa(RIKEN) and K. Yamauchi(OsakaUniversity)

Russia. Some of the Specialized Conferences that have been
held continuously over several years are now ﬁrm-footed withrepeated attendance of many participants who are looking forward to discussing the most-updated progress of their ﬁelds atOPIC.
The co-located OPIE2016, composed of 7 Exhibitions, washeld during May 18-20 by participation of 335 companies andorganizations, including direct overseas exhibitions by 8 countries and 44 companies. Total number of the participants toOPIE2016 over 3 days was 15,132. Various activities were organized during OPIE including technical exhibitions, productdemonstrations, and technical seminars. Also the Award Ceremony of the 2016 Industrial Award by The Laser Society ofJapan was held at the Exhibition Hall, and awards were presented in 3 categories to 7 companies.

The overall schedule of OPIC2016 is shown in Fig. 2. The
Specialized International Conferences were held in parallel
during May 17-20, with exception of Joint Sessions in the afternoon of May 18. The Posters were presented at the Exhibition Hall in order to stimulate interaction between OPIC andOPIE participants. The OPIC Plenary Session, open to public,and OPIC Reception were held in the morning and evening ofFig. 2 Overall schedule of OPIC2016.

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3．OPIC2016 Plenary and Reception
OPIC Plenary Session was held in the morning of May 18.
At the beginning of this Session, A. Ostendorf, Congress
Chair, has expressed condolence to Professor Wolfgang Sandnerfor his sudden passing away on December 5, 2015. Prof.
Sandner, Director General of ELI DC, was scheduled to present a plenary talk at OPIC2016. Welcome to OPIC2016 wasgiven by Sadao Nakai and Reinhart Poprawe, representing theInternational Advisory Board.
Four plenary talks by excellent speakers were presented atthis Plenary Session (Fig. 3). Mitsuru Sugawara, President ofQD Laser, Inc., presented the ﬁrst talk titled Retinal Imaging
Laser Eyewear: From Low Vision Aids to Smart Glass”. Retinal imaging is a new scheme of a smart glass, where retina isused as a screen of a miniature projector with the RGB quanThe Review of Laser Engineering July 2016

Special Issue

Table 2 Records of OPIC and Specialized International Conferences during 2012-2016. (Specialized International Conferences held previously and at other countries are shown in italics.)
YearDateOPIC2012
April 25-27

Congress Chairs

K. Shimoda
R. ByerNumber of Specialized Conferences
Papers presentedParticipantsForeign participants (%)
Participants / Conference
Number of Countries
Specialized International Conferences
ALPS (Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources)
SeTBio (Sens. Tech. for Biomater., Food, & Agri.)
BISC (Biomedical Imaging & Sensing Conf.)
APBP (Asian & Paciﬁc-Rim Symp. Biophoton.)
CIFE (Conf. on Inertial Fusion Energy)
LANSA (Laser & Accler. Neutron Sourc. & Appli.)
LSC (Laser $ Synch. Rad. Combin. Exper.)
CLE (Conf. on Laser Energetics)
CLES (Conf. on Laser Energy Science)
HEDS (Int. Conf. on High Energy Density Sci.)
LEDIA (Conf. on LED & Its Indust. Appl.)
LIC (Laser Ignition Conf.)
LANE (Laser Appl. on Nuclear Engin.)
LSSE (Laser Solution for Space & the Earth)
OMC (Optical Manipulation Conf.)

OPIC2013
April 23-26
K. Shimoda
R. Byer

629651924%
86.5
2310411
677
18%
67.7
23

Conf. Chair
K. Midorikawa

Conf. Chair
K. Midorikawa
N. Kondo

OPIC2015
April 22-24
K. IgaC. Barty
A. Ostendorf
7478
732
25%
104.6
26

OPIC2016
May 17-20
K. IgaC. Barty
A. Ostendorf
11736
1028
32%
93.5
31

Conf. Chair
F. Kannari

Conf. Chair
N. Miyanaga

Conf. ChairH. Yoneda

T. Yatagai
H. Azechi
H. Azechi
H. Azechi
H. Azechi
R. Kodama

M. Kutsuna

SLPC (Smart Laser Process. Conf.)

R. Kodama
H. Amano
T. Taira
H. Horiike

R. Kodama
H. Amano
T. Taira

R. Kodama
H. Amano(in US)

T. Omatsu

T. Omatsu

T. Jitsuno(in China)

Fig. 3 Plenary speakers of OPIC2016: Mitsuru Sugawara,Hideo Hosono, Masanori Iye and Georg Korn(from left to rght).

H. Azechi
R. Kodama
H. Amano
T. Taira
T. Ebisuzaki
T. Omatsu
T. Jitsuno,
J. Shao,
W. RudolpfH. Ogata
Y. Okamoto

XOPT (Int. Conf. X-ray Opt., Det., Sourc. & Appl.)

Vol. 44, No. 7

T. Yatagai
T. Iwai

PLD (Int. Conf. on Paciﬁc-Rim Laser Damage)
LPCC (Laser Proc. for CFRP & Compos. Mater.)

OPIC2014
April 22-25
K. IgaR. Byer
A. Ostendorf
9570
782
27%
86.928Y. Okamoto,
R. Poprawe
T. Ishikawa,
K. Yamauchi

tum dot lasers as the light sources and a MEMS mirror for
beam scanning. Some of the ongoing studies in Japan and Europe including low-vision aids and navigation surgery werepresented.
The second plenary was presented by Hideo Hosono, Director of Material Research Center of Element Strategy, Tokyo
Institute of Technology, and recipient of the Japan Prize in2016. With the title of Cultivation of Electro-Active Functionality in Transparent Oxides”, Prof. Hosono, sometimes
called alchemist of the present age, has reviewed his exploration of semiconducting functionality in transparent oxides,
covering transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors andtheir TFT application, iron-based superconductors, and electro-active function utilizing abundant elements.
Masanori Iye, Vice-chair and the Japan representative of theTMT International Observatory, presented a talk titled The
Thirty Meter Telescope Project”. With this 30-meter telescope,
which is constructed by an international consortium of Japan,USA, Canada, China and India, he has shown that various discoveries will be obtained in many ﬁelds in astronomy and as-Report on OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress 2016 (OPIC2016)475

trophysics, including the early history of the Universe, extra-solar planets, dark matter and dark energy, and active
galactic nuclei.
The fourth plenary talk was presented by Georg Korn, Science and Technology Manager of the ELI Beamlines inPrague, titled Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI): The CERNof Laser Research”. The ELI project comprises 3 pillars:
ELI-Beamlines in Czech Republic, ELI-ALPS, the attosecond
laboratory in Hungary, and ELI-NP, the photo-nuclear laboratory in Romania. The 4-th pillar for extreme high ﬁeld scienceis to be determined in future. It is expected that ELI-ERIC(European Research Infrastructure Consortium) will be established in 2018 to manage and operate these facilities within
the central governance framework. Dr. Korn has presented theELI framework and the up-dated progress at the ELI-Beamlines.
The OPIC Plenary has been highly evaluated in previousyears due to broad coverage of important and up-dated subjects with excellent speakers. In OPIC2016, plenary presentation from the industry (QD Laser, Inc.) was given for the ﬁrsttime. With this new addition, the OPIC plenary became evenmore attractive, covering broader scopes on science, technology and real-world applications.
The OPIC Reception was started by Sadao Nakai, Chair of
the International Advisory Board, followed by the greetingsby the representatives of OSA (Thomas M. Baer, President in2009) and SPIE (Toyohiko Yatagai, President in 2015). Drinks
were toasted by Gerard Mourou (Ecole Polytechnique,France) and Sergei Bulanov (QST, Japan), leading to very active interactions among the participants (Fig. 4).
4．Acknowledgement
We are indebted to Prof. Kenichi Iga, Dr. Christopher P. J.
Barty, and Prof. Andreas Ostendorf as Congress Co-Chairs,
members of the International Advisory Board, Organizing
Committee and Steering Committee, and Chairs of the Specialized International Conferences, for organizing OPIC2016.

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Fig. 4 OPIC2016 Reception. Greetings by S. Nakai, T.
Baer and T. Yatagai, and toast by G. Mourou andS. Bulanov (from left to right).
We would like to thank MEXT, METI, MAFF, MHLW, MLIT
and Keidanren for supporting OPIC2016.
We would like to thank the ﬁnancial supports from the following organizations: Research Foundation for the Electrotechnology of Chubu, Tateisi Science and Technology Foundation, Tsurugi-Photonics Foundation, Nippon Sheet GlassFoundation for Materials Science and Engineering, Support
Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology Research, Foundation, and Konica Minolta Science and Technology Foundation.
Also we would like to thank the following corporate sponsors for their generous supports: OPTO SCIENCE, INC.,
HAMAMATSU, Inc., Japan Laser Corporation, THORLABS,OPHIR, KATAOKA Corp., OKAMOTO OPTICS WORKS,Inc., and CHINESE LASER PRESS. Partnerships with SPIE
as the International Partner and PHOTONICS MEDIA andOPTORNICS as the Media Partners are also greatly appreciated.

The Review of Laser Engineering July 2016