Report on OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress 2019 (OPIC2019)
Kazuo KURODA 1, Yoshiaki KATO 2, and Shuji SAKABE3
1 Co-chair of OPIC2019 Organizing Committee,

Center for Optical Research and Education, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya 321-8585
2 Co-chair of OPIC2019 Organizing Committee,

The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, 431-1202
3 Chair of OPIC2019 Steering Committee,

Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho Uji-city, Kyoto, 611-0011

1. Introduction
OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress (OPIC) has been held annually since 2012 inYokohama as an international forum to present and discuss the most updated R & D
activities in optics and photonics over the world. The state-of-art technologies and products
in optics and photonics are demonstrated at the co-located and jointly organized OPIE(OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Exhibition).
OPIC2019 was held in April 22-26, 2019 at Pacifico Yokohama Congress Center withCongress Co-Chairs: Christopher P. J. Barty (University of California Irvine, USA), Reinhart
Poprawe (Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, Germany), Sadao Nakai (OsakaUniversity, Japan), and Ruxin Li (Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, China)(Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Congress Co-Chairs of OPIC2019:
Christopher P. J. Barty, Reinhart Poprawe, Sadao Nakai, and Ruxin Li (from left to right)

OPIC2019 was organized by OPTICS and PHOTONICS International Council, with thesupport of five Ministries of Japanese Government and Japan Business Foundation, and incooperation with many research institutes and academic societies in Japan and foreigncountries, as shown in Table 1.

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Table 1. Organization of OPIC2019
OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress 2019 (OPIC2019)
Co-located with OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Exhibition 2019 (OPIE2019)
Organized by OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Council
Specialized International Conferences were organized byThe Laser Society of Japan / SPIE – The International Society for Optics and Photonics/ Institute for Nano Quantum
Information Electronics, The University of Tokyo / The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics
Industries / The Optical Society of Japan / Akasaki Research Center (ARC), Nagoya University / The Micro
Solid-State Photonics Group of The Laser Society of Japan / High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)/ Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University / The Executive Committee of Laser Solution for Space and theEarth / SIOM Chinese Academy of Science / Japan Laser Processing Society / RIKEN SPring-8 Center / ResearchCenter for Ultra-Precision Science & Technology, Osaka University
Supporting agencies of OPIC2019
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 (Japan BusinessFederation) / Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) / Japan Tourism Agency (JTA)
Cooperating agencies of OPIC2019AESJ - Atomic Energy Society of Japan / AIST - The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science andTechnology / Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT (Germany) / ILT - Institute for Laser Technology / JPC Japan Photonics Council / JSPF - The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research / NEDO - New
Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization / OITDA - Optoelectronic Industry and Technology
Development Association / OSA - The Optical Society (USA) / Photonics Media (USA) / PIDA - The Photonics
Industry & Technology Development Association (Taiwan) / QST - National Institutes for Quantum for Quantum andRadiological Science and Technology / RIKEN

OPIC is composed of Specialized International Conferences covering a broad range oftopics in optics and photonics. Each Specialized International Conference is planned andoperated by the Conference Chair and a consortium of scientists, based on their own
initiatives to strengthen and advance the research in each specific field. This approach helps
Conference Chairs organize attractive conferences with timely topics and speakers, and alsobroadens

research networks by continuing to hold the conferences over many years.
2. OPIC2019 with 14 Specialized International Conferences

OPIC2019 was composed of 14 Specialized International Conferences, the largest number
since the beginning of OPIC, with the addition of two new conferences: Optical Technologyand Measurement for Industrial Applications (OPTM2019) and Optical Wireless and Fiber
Power Transmission Conference (OWPT2019). These 14 SpecializedInternational

Conferences and the Conference Chairs are shown below.
■ ALPS - The 8th Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources
Chairs: Hitoki Yoneda, The University of Electro-Communications
Ruxin Li, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Science2

■ BISC - The 5th Biomedical Imaging and Sensing Conference
Chair: Toyohiko Yatagai, Utsunomiya University■ HEDS - International Conference on High Energy Density Science 2019
Chair: Tomonao Hosokai, Osaka University■ ICNN - International Conference on Nano-photonics and Nano-optoelectronics 2019
Chair: Yasuhiko Arakawa, The University of Tokyo■ IoT-SNAP - IoT Enabling Sensing/Network/AI and Photonics Conference 2019
Chairs: Norihiro Hagita, ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories
Ronald Freund, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute■ IP - Information Photonics 2019
Chair: Yoshio Hayasaki, Utsunomiya University■ LDC - Laser Display and Lighting Conference 2019
Chairs: Kazuo Kuroda, Utsunomiya University,Hiroshi Murata, Mie University■ LEDIA - The 7th International Conference on Light-Emitting Devices and Their Industrial Applications
Chair: Hiroshi Amano, Nagoya University■ LIC - The 7th Laser Ignition and Giant-microphotonics Conference
Chair: Takunori Taira, RIKEN■ LSSE - Laser Solution for Space and the Earth 2019
Chair: Toshikazu Ebisuzaki, RIKEN■ OMC - The 6th Optical Manipulation and Structured Materials Conference
Chair: Takashige Omatsu, Chiba University■ OPTM - Optical Technology and Measurement for Industrial Applications 2019
Chair: Takeshi Hatsuzawa, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Rainer Tutsch, Technische Universität Braunschweig
Toru Yoshizawa, NPO 3D Associates■ OWPT - Optical Wireless and Fiber Power Transmission Conference 2019
Chair: Tomoyuki Miyamoto, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Noriyuki Yokouchi, American Furukawa Inc.

■ XOPT - International Conference on X-ray Optics and Applications 2019
Chairs: Tetsuya Ishikawa, RIKEN,
Kazuto Yamauchi, Osaka University

The overall schedule of OPIC2019 is shown in Fig. 2. The OPIC Plenary Session, open to thepublic, was held in the morning of 23 April, Tuesday. The Specialized International Conferenceswere held in parallel 22-26 April (Monday-Friday), with the exception of Joint Sessions held in
the afternoon of 23 April. The Posters were presented at the Exhibition Hall to stimulateinteraction between OPIC and OPIE participants. The OPIC Get-Together was held in theevening of 22 April, Monday, and the OPIC Reception in the evening of 24 April.
Statistics of OPIC and Specialized International Conferences during 2012-2019 are summarizedin Table 2. Some of the Specialized Conferences have been organized with different titles andsome Conferences were held in other countries, as shown in italics in Table 2.

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Fig. 2 Overall schedule of OPIC2019.

Table 2 shows that OPIC has been growing steadily as an international conference, as seenfrom the number of specialized conferences (14), the number of participants (1,218) and thepercentage of foreign participants (40%), and the number of countries (45). The top 10
countries, in order of the number of participants (shown in the parentheses), are Japan (731),
P. R. China (128), Taiwan (76), Korea (40), Germany (35), USA (30), Russia (22), France (20),India (13) and Italy (7). (Here “country” refers to the place where participant’s affiliation islocated.) These statistics show that OPIC is an international forum with broad scientificscope, attended by international communities from Asia, North America, Europe and Russia.
The Specialized International Conferences held continuously over many years are now firmfooting with attendance of many participants who look forward to discussing the mostup-to-date progress in their fields and meeting with friends at OPIC.
The co-located OPIE2019 was held during 24-26 April with participation of 405 companies
and organizations (9% increase from 2018), including direct overseas exhibitions by 73
companies from 15 countries. Total number of participants to OPIE 2019 over 3 days was16,709. Various activities were organized at OPIE including technical exhibitions, productdemonstrations, and technical seminars. Also the Award Ceremony of the 2019 IndustrialAward by The Laser Society of Japan was held at the Exhibition Hall, and awards werepresented to 7 companies in 3 categories.

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Table 2 Records of OPIC and Specialized International Conferences during 2012-2019.
(Specialized International Conferences held previously and at other countries are shown in italics.)

Year

OPIC2012

OPIC2013

OPIC2014

OPIC2015

OPIC2016

OPIC2017

OPIC2018

OPIC2019

Date

April 25-27

April 23-26

April 22-25

April 22-24

May 17-20

April 18-21

April 23-27

April 22-26

Congress Chairs

K. Shimoda
R. Byer

K. Shimoda
R. ByerK. IgaR. Byer
A. Ostendorf

K. IgaC. Barty
A. Ostendorf

K. IgaC. Barty
A. Ostendorf

C. Barty
R. Poprawe
S. NakaiC. Barty
R. Poprawe
R. Li
S. NakaiC. Barty
R. Poprawe
R. Li
S. Nakai

Number of Specialized Conferences
Papers presented

61097

1112

14

14

296

411

570

478

736

729

837

869

Participants

519

677

782

732

1028

1012

1185

1218

Foreign participants (%)

24%

18%

27%

25%

32%

37%

40%

40%

Participants / Conference

86.5

67.7

86.9

104.6

93.5

84.3

84.6

87.0

23

2328263132

4745

Spe cial ize d International Confe re nces Conf. Chair

Conf. Chair

Conf. Chair

Number of Countries

ALPS (Advanced Lasers and P hoton Sources)

K. Midorikawa K. Midorikawa F. Kannari

SeTBio ( Sens. Tech. for Biomater., Food, &Conf. Chair

Conf. Chair

Conf. Chair

Conf. Chair

Conf. Chair

N. Miyanaga

H. Yoneda

H. Yoneda

H. Yoneda

H. Yoneda,
R. Li

T. Yatagai

T. Yatagai

T. Yatagai

T. Yatagai

R. KodamaT. Hosokai

T. Hosokai

Y. Arakawa

Y. Arakawa

Y. Arakawa

N. KondoAgri.)

BISC (Biomedical Imaging & Sensing Conf.)

T. Yatagai

APBP ( Asian & Pacific-Rim Symp. Biophoton)

T. Iwai

CLSM ( Conf. on Laser Surgery and Medicine)

M. Kikuchi

CIFE ( Conf. on Inertial Fusion Energy)

H. Azechi

LANSA ( Laser & Accler. Neutron Sourc. &M. Kikuchi

H. Azechi

Appli.)

CLE ( Conf. on Laser Energetics)

H. Azechi

CLES ( Conf. on Laser Energy Science)

H. Azechi

CLES/LASNA ( Laser Energy Sci. & Neutron

H. Nishimura
R. Hanayama

Sources)

HEDS (Int. Conf. on High Energy Density Sci.)

R. Kodama

R. Kodama

R. Kodama

R. Kodama

R. Kodama

ICNN (Int. Conf. on Nano-photonics & Nanooptoelectronics)

IP (Information Photonics)

Y. Hayasaki

IoT -SNAP (IoT Enabling Sensing/Network/AIand P hotonics Conf.)

LDC (Laser Display & Lighting Conf.)

K. Kuroda

LEDIA (Int. Conf. on Light-Emitting Devices andTheir Industrial Applications)

LIC (Laser Ignition and Giant-microphotonics
Conf.)

Y. Hayasaki
N. Hagita,
R. FreundN. Hagita,
R. Freund

K. Kuroda(in Taiwan)

K. Kuroda(in Germany) K. Kuroda

K. Kuroda
H. Murata

K. Kuroda
H. Murata

H. Amano

H. Amano

H. Amano

H. AmanoH. Amano

H. Amano

T. T airaT. Taira

T. T airaT. Taira

LSC ( Laser & Synch. Rad. Combin. Exper.)(in US)

H. Amano

T. T aira

H. Azechi

N. Sarukura

LNPC ( Light Driven Nucl.-Particle Phys. &K. Homma,
O. Tesileanu

Cosmology)

LANE ( Laser Appl. on Nuclear Engin.)

H. Horiike

LSSE (Laser Solution for Space & Earth)
OMC (Optical Manipulation Conf.)

T. Omatsu

T. Omatsu

T. Ebisuzaki

T. Ebisuzaki

T. Ebisuzaki

T. Ebisuzaki

T. Omatsu

T. Omatsu

T. Omatsu

T. Omatsu
T. Hatsuzawa
R. T utsch
T. Yoshizawa

OP TM (Optical Technology and Measurement forIndustrial Applications)OWP T (Optical Wireless and Fiber PowerT. Miyamoto
N. Yokouchi

Transmission Conf.)

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

T. Jitsuno
M. Kutsuna(in China)

T. Jitsuno
J. Shao
W. Rudolpf(in China)

T. Jitsuno

H. Ogata
Y. Okamoto

XOPT (Int. Conf. X-ray Opt., Det., Sourc. &Y. Okamoto
R. Poprawe
T. Ishikawa
K. YamauchiAppl.)

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M. T sukamoto
R. Poprawe
T. Ishikawa
K. Yamauchi

T. Ishikawa
K. Yamauchi

T. Ishikawa
K. Yamauchi

3. OPIC2019 Plenary and Reception
OPIC 2019 Plenary Session was held in the morning of 23 April. The Welcome Address wasgiven by Sadao Nakai (Osaka University), Congress Co-Chair. It was followed by a shortspeech celebrating the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to three researchers in laser
science Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou, and Donna Strickland.

Takashige Omatsu (ChibaUniversity), Chair of OMC2019, presented Ashkin's work. Ashkin is a pioneer of the laser
cooling and optical trapping technology. Optical trapping has been applied to bioscience as an
optical tweezer. Subsequently, Christopher Barty, Co-Chair of OPIC2019, introduced thework of Mourou and Strickland. Mourou and Strickland invented the chirped pulse
amplification technology which has greatly contributed to the development of high-power
laser science.
Four plenary talks were presented on optics and photonics: applications of high-power
laser systems, high-brightness X-ray sources, and quantum information systems. (Fig. 3).
Ursula Keller (ETH Zurich), gave the first plenary talk entitled "Recent advances inSESAM-modelocked high-power thin disk lasers". She reported the demonstration ofSESAM-modelocked high-power laser system up to 350-W with 940-fs, 40-J pulses at theoutput of an Yb:YAG thin disk oscillator. She installed the laser disk in the vacuum chamber
to reduce the thermal lensing effect and to remove the optical nonlinearity of the air. She also
demonstrated the cascaded (2) nonlinearity to compensate the self-phase modulation of air.
This enabled laser operation in air at 210 W average power output with 780-fs, 19-J pulse,
the highest output power of SESAM-modelocked laser operated in air.
The second speaker was Ruxin Li (Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics). The
title of his talk was "The 10PW and 100PW lasers: paving the way for exploring the next
frontier of high field physics". He is investigating the high-power laser systems for
progressing fundamental science of high-field physics. He introduced two high-power laser
systems in his Laboratory, the working system Shanghai Super intense Ultrafast LaserFacility (SULF)-10PW laser facility and the future facility Station for Extreme Light (SEL)
100 PW laser system. He talked about the recent achievements using SULF facility andfuture prospects on ultra-high field science such as the vacuum quantum electrodynamics
with SEL facility.
Mike Dunne (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) presented "A billion times brighter:An overview of the revolution underway in X-ray science". The development of X-ray freeelectron lasers (XFEL) opened the study on atomic and molecular-scale science of quantum
materials, catalytic chemistry, the science of extreme science, and structured biology. Dunneand his group built the facilities that provide ultrashort X-ray pulses with a peak brillianceover 9 orders of magnitude higher than synchrotron sources which enables us to capture
atomic level detail on femtosecond timescale using a wide range of coherent imaging andspectroscopy tools. Dunne also showed the dynamics of molecules as a stop motion movie.
The final plenary speaker was Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Stanford University). Title of his talkwas "Optical Neural Network Operating at the Quantum Limit -Coherent Ising machines,
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XY machines and SAT solvers- ". He discussed the basic concept, operational principle andimplementation of a coherent Ising machine, XY machine, and SAT solvers based ondegenerate optical parametric oscillators. Quantum bits are series of optical pulses stored in
optical fiber. He applied this machine to some optimization problems.

Fig. 3 Plenary speakers of OPIC2019:
Ursula Keller, Ruxin Li, Mike Dunne, Yoshihisa Yamamoto (from left to right)

The OPIC Reception began with a welcome speech given by Kenichi Iga (Tokyo Institute ofTechnology), Chair of International Advisory Board, followed by Kagami-biraki － theceremonial opening of a sake barrel (Fig. 4) and a toast given by Kazuo Kuroda (UtsunomiyaUniversity), Co-Chair of Organizing Committee. During the reception, participants enjoyeddrinks, food, conversation, and a jazz band. Attended by most of the OPIC participants, thereception was an excellent place for socializing and beginning new friendships between
various communities.

Fig. 4 OPIC2019 Reception.

Kagami-Biraki by Beth Harrington, Jim Oschmann, Tatsuya Uzuka,7Mike Dunne, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Sadao Nakai (from left to right).

4. Acknowledgement
We are indebted to Christopher P. J. Barty, Reinhart Poprawe, Sadao Nakai, and Ruxin Li
as Congress Co-Chairs, members of the International Advisory Board, members of theOrganizing Committee and the Steering Committee, and Chairs of the Specialized
International Conferences, for organizing OPIC2019. We would like to thank MEXT, METI,MAFF, MHLW, MLIT and KEIDANREN for supporting OPIC2019.
We would like to thank the financial supports from the following organizations: TheAMADA Foundation, Tsurugi-Photonics Foundation, The Murata Science Foundation,Nippon Sheet Glass Foundation for Materials Science and Engineering, Support Center for
Advanced Telecommunications Technology Research, Yokohama Convention & Visiting
Bureau, and Matsuo Foundation.
Furthermore, we would like to thank the corporate sponsors for their generous supports:
OPTO SCIENCE, INC., OSA, SPIE, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan Laser Corp.,
KATAOKA Corp., Kimmon Koha, OKAMOTO OPTICS WORKS, Inc., OPTO-LINE Inc., andTHORLABS Japan. Partnerships with SPIE as International Partner, and PHOTONICS
MEDIA and OPTORNICS as Media Partners are also greatly appreciated.

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