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Abstract: Journal of the Optical Society of America B Editor-in-Chief, Grover Swartzlander, announces the 30th Anniversary of the journal.
© 2013 Optical Society of America
This is a special year for the Optical Society of America (OSA) as we celebrate the 30th year anniversary of two esteemed publications: Journal of the Optical Society of America A (JOSA A) and Journal of the Optical Society of America B (JOSA B). Punctuating this “diamond year” will be a special website (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/josaab30anniv.cfm) featured in Optics InfoBase highlighting mini-review articles on important topics in JOSA A and JOSA B, past editorials, listings of most-cited papers, and other content to mark the anniversary. The mini-reviews will be published throughout the year and will be open access for a brief period immediately after publication.
JOSA B is truly an international journal (for example, see the chart below). Currently,
some papers are published per
year, with
from outside the USA. Additionally, a preponderance of submissions originates from
China, the USA, Iran and India. Authors are drawn by the exceptionally long Cited
Half-Life (9.2 years); well-written, copy-edited full-length reports; voluntary
page charges; a remarkably short 101 days time to publish; and an Impact Factor of 2.21.
Papers can also be made open access for an optional fee.
Let’s glimpse back to see how JOSA B has become the go-to journal for in-depth scientific reports on optical physics. In 1984 the stalwart journal of optics, the Journal of the Optical Society of America, was dissected into its metaphorical yin and yang components after a 67-year run and 63,429 pages of text. Joseph W. Goodman of Stanford University was the last editor-in-chief of JOSA before Robert W. Terhune managed the split. This fission materialized as the subscription-based journals, JOSA A and JOSA B. As may be expected, both emotional and practical reasoning preceded the eventual split. What necessitated the fracture? According to Michael Bass, who was involved in the business deliberations, “it was the singular invention of the laser”. The rapid growth in the number of laser-related papers in non-OSA journals triggered alarm among OSA editors, particularly Robert Terhune (Editor from 1984 to 1987). To better serve its members and remain current, the decision was made to rebrand JOSA, with the “B” component soliciting papers in disciplines related to the interaction of light with matter, e.g., laser physics. In the inaugural January 1, 1984 edition, Robert Terhune stated, “This journal was established to extend the coverage of the OSA journals to include much more laser spectroscopy and modern quantum optics.” The sister “A” journal was branded to publish more classical optics and imaging science reports, akin to the predominant coverage of the original JOSA. That first year, authors included notable scientists such as Arthur Schawlow, Milton Kerker, Leonard Mandel, Joseph Eberly, Masataka Nakazawa, Stig Stenholm, Peter Milonni, Murray Sargent, Robert Boyd, Carlos Stroud, Naoya Uchida, and Brian Wherrett. The most-cited paper from that initial year is “Compression of optical pulses chirped by self-phase modulation in fibers” by Jack Tomlinson, Roger Stolen, and Charles Shank. A complete list of top-cited papers for each year since 1984 is listed below. These representative snapshots capture some of the ways in which science topics wax and wane, only to cycle again as technological advancements are made or new optical materials are discovered.
As Editor-in-Chief, my goal is to continue a tradition of high-quality, full-length, international papers that span experimental and theoretical topics in optical physics. I am grateful to Henry van Driel, who guided the journal from 2007 to 2012, as well as past Editors (see table below) who dedicated a significant part of their career to build JOSA B into a valued asset for the scientific world. I am particularly indebted to a dedicated group of voluntary topical editors, who spend many hours seeking and deliberating over reviews of hundreds of submissions each year. I also greatly appreciate the remarkably professional OSA editorial staff (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/josab/journal/josab/about.cfm#board) that works tirelessly to keep all of OSA’s journals at the leading edge of scientific publishing. Most importantly, I thank you, the readers and authors of JOSA B. As part of your role as a scholar, I ask you to continue to cite full-length journal papers, not just boutique or high impact papers, as this aids and strengthens our community. Finally, please feel free to contact me with any ideas for the journal, such as special feature issues.
| Past Editors of JOSA B | |
| Robert W. Terhune | 1984–1987 |
| William H. Weber | 1988–1988 |
| Paul F. Liao | 1989–1994 |
| Tony F. Heinz | 1995–2000 |
| George I. Stegeman | 2001–2006 |
| Henry van Driel | 2007–2012 |
REFERENCES
1. R. W. Terhune, "From the Editor," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 1, p. 1 (1984).
2. Private correspondence, Michael Bass.
3. T. Reuters, “Web of Knowledge,” http://apps.webofknowledge.com.
Further Reading
“JOSA, 1961–1983 (History of the OSA),” John N. Howard, Optics & Photonics News, pp. 16–17, August 2004 www.opticsinfobase.org/journal/josa/pdfs/josahistory2004.pdf.
LIST OF MOST CITED JOSA B PAPERS IN EACH CALENDAR YEAR
1984. Compression of optical pulses chirped by self-phase modulation in fibers, W. J. Tomlinson, R. H. Stolen, and C. V. Shank, JOSA B 1, 139–149 (1984).
1985. Dressed-atom approach to atomic motion in laser-light—The dipole force revisited, J. Dalibard and C. Cohen-Tannoudji, JOSA B 2, 1707–1720 (1985).
1986. Spectroscopic and laser characteristics of Ti-Al2O3, P. F. Moulton, JOSA B 3, 125–133 (1986).
1987. Studies of multiphoton production of vacuum ultraviolet-radiation in the rare-gasses, A. McPherson, G. Gibson, H Jara, U. Johann, T. S. Luk, I. A. McIntyre, K. Boyer, and C. K. Rhodes, JOSA B 4, 595–601 (1987).
1988. High-resolution femtosecond pulse shaping, A. M. Weiner, J. P. Heritage, and E. M. Kirschner, JOSA B 5, 1563–1572 (1988).
1989. Laser cooling below the Doppler limit by polarization gradients—Simple theoretical models, J. Dalibard and C. Cohen-Tannoudji, JOSA B 6, 2023–2045 (1989).
1990. Far-infrared time-domain spectroscopy with terahertz beams of dielectrics and semiconductors, D. Grischkowsky, S. Keiding, M. van Exter, and C. Fattinger, JOSA B 7, 2006–2015 (1990).
1991. Structures for additive pulse mode-locking, H. A. Haus, J. G. Fujimoto, and E. P. Ippen, JOSA B 8, 2068–2076 (1991).
1992. Polarization-sensitive low-coherence reflectometer for birefringence characterization and ranging, M. R. Hee, D. Huang, E. A. Swanson, and J. G. Fujimoto, JOSA B 9, 903–908 (1992).
1993. Photonic band-gap structures, E. Yablonovitch, JOSA B 10, 283–295 (1993).
1994. Orientationally enhanced photorefractive effect in polymers, W. E. Moerner, S. M. Silence, F. Hache, and G. C. Bjorklund, JOSA B 11, 320–330 (1994).
1995. Quasi-phase-matched optical parametric oscillators in bulk periodically poled LiNbO3, L. E. Myers, R. C. Eckardt, M. M. Fejer, R. L. Byer, W. R. Besenberg, and J. W. Pierce, JOSA B 12, 2102–2116 (1995).
1996. Measurement of two-photon excitation cross section of molecular fluorophores with data from 690 to 1050 nm, C. Xu and W. W. Webb, JOSA B 13, 481–491 (1996).
1997. Ablation of metals by ultrashort laser pulses, S. Nolte, C. Momma, H. Jacobs, A. Tunnermann, B. N. Chichkov, B. Wellegehausen, and H. Welling, JOSA B 14, 2716–2722 (1997).
1998. Multipolar molecular and multipolar fields: probing and controlling the tensorial nature of nonlinear molecular media, S. Brasselet and J. Zyss, JOSA B 15, 257–288 (1998).
1999. Q-switching stability limits of continuous-wave passive mode locking, C. Honninger, R. Paschotta, F. Morier-Genoud, M. Moser, and U. Keller, JOSA B 16, 46–56 (1999).
2000. Terahertz waveguides, G. Gallot, S. P. Jamison, R. W. McGowan, and D. Grischkowsky, JOSA B 17, 851–863 (2000).
2001. Concurrent enhancement of imaging depth and contrast for optical coherence tomography by hyperosmotic agents, R. K. K. Wang, X. Q. Xu, V. V. Tuchin, and J. B. Elder, JOSA B 18, 948–953 (2001).
2002. Multipole method for microstructured optical fibers. I. Formulation, T. P. White, B. T. Kuhlmey, R. C. McPhedran, D. Maystre, G. Renversez, C. M. de Sterke, and L. C. Botten, JOSA B 19, 2322–2330 (2002).
2003. Femtosecond writing of active optical waveguides with astigmatically shaped beams, R. Osellame, S. Taccheo, M. Maragoni, R. Ramponi, P. Laporta, D. Polli, S. De Silvestri, and G. Cerullo, JOSA B 20, 1559–1567 (2003).
2004. Large Raman gain and nonlinear phase shifts in high-purity As2Se3chalcogenide fibers, R. E. Slusher, G. Lenz, J. Hodelin, J. Sanghera, L. B. Shaw, and I. D. Aggarwal, JOSA B 21, 1146–1155 (2004).
2005. Optical buffers based on slow light in electromagnetically induced transparent media and coupled resonator structures: comparative analysis, J. B. Khurgin, JOSA B 22, 1062–1074.
2006. Homogenization of metamaterials by field-averaging (Invited), D. R. Smith and J. B. Pendry, JOSA B 23, 391–403 (2006).
2007. Beam combining of ytterbium fiber amplifiers (Invited), S. J. Augst, J. K. Ranka, T. Y. Fan, and A. Sanchez, JOSA B 24, 1707–1715 (2007).
2008. Properties of normal-dispersion femtosecond fiber lasers, A. Chong, W. H. Renninger, and F. W. Wise, JOSA B 25, 140–148 (2008).
2009. 13.2 W laser-diode-pumped Nd:YVO4/LBO blue laser at 457 nm, Q. Zheng, Y. Yao, G. Li, D. P. Qu, and L. Zhao, JOSA B 26, 1238–1242 (2009).
2010. High power fiber lasers: current status and future perspectives (Invited), D. J. Richardson, J. Nilsson, and W. A. Clarkson, JOSA B 27, B63–B92 (2010).
2011. Supercontinuum generation from similar to 1.9 to 4.5 μm in ZBLAN fiber with high average power generation beyond 3,8 μm using a thulium-doped fiber amplifier, O. P. Kulkarni, V.V. Alexander, M. Kumar, M. J. Freeman, M. N. Islam, F. L. Terry, M. Neelakandan, and A. Chan, JOSA B 28, 2486–2498 (2011).
2012. Supercontinuum generation in ZBLAN fibers-detailed comparison between measurement and simulation, C. Agger, C. Petersen, S. Dupont, H. Steffensen, J. K. Lyngso, C. L. Thomsen, J. Thogersen, S. R. Keiding, and O. Bang, JOSA B 29, 635–645 (2012).
2013. Efficient W-state entanglement concentration using quantum-dot and optical microcavities, Y. B. Sheng and L. Zhou, JOSA B 30, 678–686 (2013).