The following section is the special issue for the 11th International Conference on Optics-photonics Design and Fabrication (ODF’18) held on November 28th–30th, 2018 at Hiroshima, Japan. The special section contains contributed papers based on the presentations at ODF’18. These papers were reviewed and accepted according to the editorial policy of Optical Review.

The ODF conference has been held biyearly since 1998 and is an international forum for engineers and scientists in the field of optics–photonics design and fabrication to exchange their ideas and achievements to promote future progress in the field. This special issue covers a wide range of optical technologies from design, prototyping, and fabrication of optical devices, components, and systems.

ODF’18 was organized by Optics Design Group of the Optical Society of Japan (OSJ) and was sponsored by the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP), The City of Hiroshima, and Hiroshima Convention and Visitors Bureau. We sincerely thank 29 other organizations for their cooperation.

At ODF’18, the plenary session, a special session on “Optics and Photonics for Intelligent Vehicles” and the four sessions on Optical Design/Simulation, Optical Components/Devices, Optical Systems and New Technologies were provided. The total number of papers reached 140 from 15 countries, and the total number of participants was 241. The conference was successful and is followed by the 12th International Conference on Optics–photonics Design and Fabrication (ODF’20) to be held in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on June 2nd–4th, 2020.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all who contributed to ODF’18 and the Editor’s thank goes to honest reviewers for their fair judgments.

October 2019

Editor in Chief of Special Section

Kenji Konno