This section is the special issue for the winners of Optics Awards for Excellent Papers, given by Optical Society of Japan. This special issue contains the review articles by two winners. These papers were reviewed and accepted according to the editorial policy of Optical Review.

Optics Awards for Excellent Papers started in 1960 and 103 young researchers received these awards over 58 years. The recipients have led optical researches in Japan and have extended and applied optical research in many fields. Optics Awards for Excellent Paper in 2017 was confered by newly founded “General Incorporated Association Optical Society Japan” in 2015. The award succeeds long history and traditions of OSJ.

Two excellent papers were selected: one is “Ultrahigh-speed distributed Brillouin reflectometry,” by Dr. Yosuke Mizuno and the other is “High- throughput label-free image cytometry and image-based classification of live Euglena gracilis” by Dr. Lei Cheng. Dr. Y. Mizuno reported an optical fiber sensor on Brillouin scattering for measurement of strain and temperature distribution. They demonstrated realtime distributed measurement with one-end-access reflectometry configuration.

Dr. Lei Cheng reported optical time-stretch imaging was applied for flow cytometry and observed live Euglena gracilis without stain process. He achieved continuous image acquisition at an ultrahigh frame rate of 10–1000 million frames per second.

I hope you enjoy the excellent reviews by two winners and get some inspirations on your research. Finally, I greatly appreciate the Section Committee member of Optics Awards for Excellent Papers for their great efforts.


March 2018

Editor of the Special Section

Yoshimasa Kawata

The Chair of the Selection Committee of Optics Awards for Excellent Papers