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IEEE Photonics Technology Letters

Rapid publication of significant original research contributions in photonics, lightwave components, laser physics and laser/electro-optic technology.

PTL newcover 4 25

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters addresses all aspects of the IEEE Photonics Society Constitutional Field of Interest with emphasis on photonic/lightwave components and applications, laser physics and systems and laser/electro-optics technology. The letters journal publishes engineering, applied physics and physics-oriented papers providing a focal point of quality engineering-oriented papers in the electro-optics field not found in other rapid-publication journals.

10.8 weeks

Time to Publication

2.3

Impact Factor

What's Popular

Folded Sub-1V Vπ Thin Film Lithium Niobate Phase Modulator
Source: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters – popular articles | Published on 2025-02-20

Enhanced Operation Range of Silicon MZI Filters Using a Broadband Bent Directional Coupler
Source: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters – popular articles | Published on 2025-03-19

Integrated Photonic Convolution Accelerator Empowered by Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Modulators
Source: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters – popular articles | Published on 2025-02-11

Classical and Quantum Experiments Using Hybrid Si3N₄-LiNbO₃ Photonic Chip
Source: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters – popular articles | Published on 2025-01-03

67.2 Tbit/s Real-Time DCI Transmission Demonstration Using Single Seamless SOA
Source: IEEE Photonics Technology Letters – popular articles | Published on 2025-01-15

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OPEN CALLS FOR PAPERS

Information on upcoming publications with open paper and poster submissions for the IEEE Photonics Society.

Description

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters (PTL) is a hybrid journal allowing open access and traditional submission. It is published semimonthly. Original contributions are welcomed relating to advances or state-of-the-art capabilities in the theory, design, fabrication, application, performance, packaging, and reliability of:

  • Lasers and optical devices; including semiconductor and solid state lasers, detectors, integrated optics and optoelectronics, sensors, etc.
  • Fiber, cable and waveguide technologies; including materials, splicing, connectors, measurement techniques, etc.
  • Systems, subsystems, and new applications of quantum electronic devices; including system demonstrations, signal processing, performance characterization, etc.
  • Laser-matter interactions, hybrid and heterogeneous integration, nanophotonics, optical fiber and wireless communications, diode lasers, mid-IR photonics,  nonlinear optics, femtosecond laser techniques, optical sensors, biophotonics, quantum photonics and systems, topological photonics, and metasurfaces and metamaterials for photonics applications.


The PTL letter submission limit is four pages.

Information for Authors

The use of artificial intelligence (AI)–generated text in an article shall be disclosed in the acknowledgments section of any paper submitted to an IEEE Conference or Periodical. The sections of the paper that use AI-generated text shall have a citation to the AI system used to generate the text.

Upon submission, your manuscript will be checked for formal template compliance before the Senior Editor examines the paper for scope compliance, language proficiency, as well as basic technical content and novelty. Out-of-scope papers, as well as papers of insufficient technical content or quality, may be immediately rejected upon consultation within the Editorial Board.

After passing these initial editorial steps, the Senior Editor assigns your manuscript to an Associate Editor who is an expert in the respective paper’s topic area. The Associate Editor selects a minimum of two reviewers who are experts in the field of your paper. Authors can track the status of their submission at any time through their Author Portal. Please note that all technical work performed in this paper handling process, including all work performed by the Editor-in-Chief, the Senior Editors, the Associate Editors, and the Reviewers, is based on volunteers. While we constantly strive to keep reviewing times to a minimum, we place strong emphasis on technical quality. The average turn-around time (from submission to decision) is currently about 77 days.

PTL allows for three revision cycles. Should your manuscript require more than three revisions, it may be rejected, but you are welcome to resubmit so you can fully address all reviewer concerns.

Once accepted, your paper will be placed on-line in the IEEE Xplore Early Access queue for the journal within 2-3 days. At that point it can be fully referenced using the digital object identifier (DOI), even if it hasn’t yet appeared in a printed issue.

The articles in this journal are peer reviewed in accordance with the requirements set forth in the IEEE Publication Services and Products Board Operations Manual (https://pspb.ieee.org/images/files/files/opsmanual.pdf, section ) Each published article is reviewed by a minimum of two independent reviewers using a single-anonymous process, where the identities of the reviewers are not known to the authors, but the reviewers know the identities of the authors. Articles will be screened for plagiarism as part of the initial submission check.

Appeals must be directed to the EiC, in the form of a letter that clearly explains the rationale for the appeal. The submitted documentation should also include a copy of the rejection letter and of the reviews. The IEEE appeal process calls for the establishment of an independent group of evaluators that will review the Authors’ rebuttal, the decision of the AE, and the Reviewers comments. The process takes on average 6-8 weeks. Once the EiC has reached a decision, it will be communicated to the authors by email.

Publishing within IEEE is governed by Principles of Scholarly publishing developed in 2007 and found at:
http://www.ieee.org/web/publications/rights/PublishingPrinciples.html

IEEE Statement on the Appropriate use of Bibliometrics:
https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/bibliometrics-statement.html

All IEEE journals require an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) for all authors. ORCID is a persistent unique identifier for researchers and functions similarly to an article’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI). ORCIDs enable accurate attribution and improved discoverability of an author’s published work. The author will need a registered ORCID in order to submit a manuscript or review a proof in an IEEE journal. Researchers can sign up for an ORCID for free via an easy registration process on orcid.org

Learn more at http://orcid.org/content/about-orcid or in a video at https://vimeo.com/97150912.

Authors who do not have an ORCID in their ScholarOne user account will be prompted to provide one during submission.

English language editing services can help refine the language of your article and reduce the risk of rejection without review. IEEE authors are eligible for discounts at several language editing services; visit the IEEE Author Center to learn more. Please note these services are fee-based and do not guarantee acceptance.

Please note that submissions that are hard to understand due to poor English will be immediately rejected.

All PTL manuscripts have to be original and to be the author’s own body of work. Please check the following links for more information: IEEE Plagiarism Guidelines

All members of the IEEE are eligible for membership in the Society and may receive a print subscription to the PTL journal upon payment of the annual Society membership fee of $34.00, plus an annual subscription fee of $75.00. Electronic access to PTL on IEEE Explore is included with Society membership. Member copies of Transactions/Journals are for personal use only.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

This publication focuses on work with high technical impact. A brief impact statement helps our Editors to assess your paper prior to entering peer review. Your impact statement must be concise (at most 100 words), should not simply be a copy of the abstract, and must contain information on the significant and impactful contributions beyond the state of the art that you believe are reported in your submission. A paper may have “impact” in various dimensions, including:

New concepts that solve a problem better than the state of the art in at least one aspect (speed, capacity, power, size, complexity, …)

Unprecedented and non-incremental experimental results

In-depth studies that compare different solutions and result in novel conclusions

Yes, if there is proper disclosure of information. The use of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in an article (including but not limited to text, figures, images, and code) shall be disclosed in the acknowledgments section of any article submitted to an IEEE publication. The AI system used shall be identified, and specific sections of the article that use AI-generated content shall be identified and accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the level at which the AI system was used to generate the content.

The use of AI systems for editing and grammar enhancement is common practice and, as such, is generally outside the intent of the above policy. In this case, disclosure as noted above is recommended.

Under no circumstances is it permitted to use AI tools to fabricate/manipulate data, code, figures or other research output with the intention of falsifying/distorting research results.

In general, reproduction of previously published material should be avoided if possible, and earlier work should instead be referenced in your current submission. To reproduce previously published material, you need to do all of the following:

  • Obtain written permission from the contact or lead author of the previous publication.
  • If the previous publication is not an IEEE publication, obtain written permission from the copyright holding organization to reproduce the material. This also applies if you reproduce your own work published under a third party’s copyright.
  • Clearly indicate in your submission the material that is being reproduced.
  • State in the introduction of your paper in how far your work goes beyond previously published work which you partially reproduce in your PTL submission.

Requesting permission through IEEE

Permission to reuse IEEE content, including use in a thesis or dissertation, must be given through the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service, using IEEE Xplore.

  1. Please locate the content beginning at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp.
  2. Once on the abstract page of the article, please locate the “Request Permission” link in the left navigation panel.
  3. You can also find the copyright symbol directly on the article Table of Content.
  4. If you find there are none of these links, you should open the free front pages of the content to determine if there is another rights holder, as this is an indication that IEEE is not the intellectual-property rights holder and cannot grant permission for reuse.
  5. If the links are there, please choose one, as this will take you to the permission application page. If you are not able to use the RightsLink service, permission licensing may also be obtained through www.copyright.com.

If you experience difficulty with the RightsLink service, please contact the customer care group at customercare@copyright.com or write to IEEE Publications at pubs-permissions@ieee.org.

IEEE supports evolutionary publishing of an author’s own body of work, such as submitting a first account of the work to a conference, a second, more detailed analysis to a Letters publication, and a third, significantly extended version or a summary of several related pieces of prior work to a full-length journal. The guiding principle for evolutionary publishing is that a reader must have a significant advantage of reading the next evolutionary stage of publication compared to having access to earlier stages. As such, simple 1:1 reproduction of prior work does not justify a new submission. Whenever re-using prior results, it is mandatory to (1) minimize direct 1:1 overlap in text and figures wherever possible, (2) properly reference all earlier paper(s) whenever copies of text and figures are made, and (3) highlight in the introduction the technical advances of the new submission with respect to earlier work or the rationale behind summarizing multiple prior conference papers in a full-length journal paper. Papers that do not follow these guidelines will be immediately rejected without review.

The first hurdle every new submission must pass is the editorial screening. Several reasons might lead to immediate rejection in this phase, before any reviewers have been assigned. The submission passes the screening if all the following are met:
 
  1. The author(s) have followed the IEEE guidelines for style.
  2. The author(s) have not obviously violated IEEE Policies.
  3. The article is comprehensible (in other words, not so poorly written that it is unreadable).
  4. The subject and contents of the article meet the scope of the periodical or a specific issue.
  5. The article meets a minimum criterion for technical substance established for the periodical.

This publication is entirely based on volunteers doing the technical part of the work, including the Editor-in-Chief, the Deputy Editors, the Associate Editors, and the Reviewers. While we strive to provide the fastest possible review times, we do not compromise on the quality of our reviews. Finding diligent yet responsive expert reviewers can sometimes be difficult, which may result in longer review times.

We are always looking to expand the reviewer pool. Please consider becoming a speedy, high-quality reviewer yourself.

The decision about a paper’s acceptance or rejection is not a simple majority vote between reviews but is a complex process, weighing multiple factors of which the reviews are as important as the technical judgment of the Editorial Board. Please also note that if we believe a paper requires such extensive revisions that we don’t think these can be addressed in a major revision phase, we may decide to reject the paper in its current state. Furthermore, if a revised paper fails to address the reviewer concerns, we may decide to reject the paper at that point.

No process is perfect, and we certainly do make occasional mistakes in our decisions, although we try not to. If you have strong technical arguments as to why you think our decision was wrong and your paper should be published, please send a rebuttal letter to our staff, laying out your technical arguments. The Editorial Board will then examine the case and reach a decision as to whether the paper will be allowed for revisions. However, please note that a rebuttal process is involved and requires a member of the Editorial Board to examine your paper in detail. Depending on the case, this may take a substantial amount of time. As an alternative, you can refrain from a formal rebuttal but rather address all reviewer comments to their full extent and re-submit your paper, indicating that this is a re-submission, attaching a detailed response to the original reviews, and indicating the changes you made to your manuscript. The handling Associate Editor will then examine whether your re-submission incorporates substantial enough revisions for another review process to make sense.

Authors may share or post their accepted article in the following locations:

  • Author’s personal website
  • Author’s employer’s website or institutional repository
  • arXiv.org
  • TechRxiv.org
  • Funder’s repository*

Once accepted by IEEE, the posted article must be removed from any other third-party servers.

Unless the work is published as an open access article or with a U.S. Government, EU, or Crown copyright, IEEE must be credited as the copyright holder with the following statement included on the initial screen displaying IEEE-copyrighted material:

“© 20XX IEEE.  Personal use of this material is permitted.  Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.”

For articles under U.S. Government, EU, or Crown copyright protection, authors must follow the copyright holder’s requirements.

*IEEE policy provides that authors are free to follow funder public access mandates to post accepted articles in repositories. When posting in a repository, the IEEE embargo period is 24 months. However, IEEE recognizes that posting requirements and embargo periods vary by funder. IEEE authors may comply with requirements to deposit their accepted articles in a repository per funder requirements where the embargo is less than 24 months. Information on specific funder requirements can be found here.

Early Access articles are intended to help authors get published as quickly as possible. Early Access articles are accepted and peer-reviewed but may not be fully edited or assigned to a publication issue or volume. All Early Access articles are fully citable (by DOI) as soon as they appear in IEEE Xplore.

Early Access articles are available online much sooner and are normally posted on IEEE Xplore within one week of authors uploading their final files upon acceptance.

To be considered as a reviewer, you must create an account for the IEEE PTL Author Portal Site. Once you create the account, your name will be added to a pool of potential reviewers. You may also submit your publication list and your areas of expertise to our staff to forward to the journal Editor-in-Chief. For further information IEEE Reviewer Information visit the IEEE Author Center. Your volunteer work will be highly appreciated!

No. IEEE policy states the following regarding the use of AI by peer reviewers: Information or content contained in or about a manuscript under review shall not be processed through a public platform (directly or indirectly) for AI generation of text for a review. Doing so is considered a breach of confidentiality because AI systems generally learn from any input.

Choosing Associate Editors is at the heart of ensuring the high-quality standards of this publication. As such, the selection process is extremely selective and must pass several stages of quality control and voting, where topical, geographic, institutional, and gender diversity within the Editorial Board are also taken into account. If you would like to contribute as an Associate Editor and you believe that you are a suitable candidate whose technical background and expertise compare favorably with existing members of the Editorial Board, please send an email with your cv and publication list to our staff.

If you find an essential technical mistake in your own published paper, please submit “Comments/Corrections” to the IEEE Author Portal for this publication indicating the paper and the mistake in it and writing a short clarification that corrects the mistake. This document will be examined within the Editorial Board and published accordingly. If you discover a mistake in another author’s publication, it is good practice to inform the other author of the mistake and initiate a dialogue. As an outcome of this dialogue, the other author may choose to publish an “Comments/Corrections”, or you may choose to publish a “Comments/Corrections” on the paper in question. For further questions, contact our staff.

The new eCF has expanded features that meet the evolving publishing world. The eCF now provides additional publishing agreements such as the Open Access Publishing Agreement, and the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors submitting to hybrid journals now will be given a clear explanation of publishing options and will have an opportunity to select their preferred publishing model (Traditional or Open Access). The eCF has also added extensive information sidebars throughout the process to help instruct authors about each step, and an overall streamlined process.

As with the original eCF, the eCF2 allows authors to choose from a variety of languages (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish), and will provide authors with an opportunity to reassign the eCF to another author or agent if necessary.

Read more about the IEEE eCF here and here.

Editorial Board

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Boon S. Ooi
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Mecca, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Email: boon.ooi@kaust.edu.sa

Senior Editors

Prof. Jose Azana, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada

Dr. Mikhail Belkin, Technische Universitat Munchen Walter Schottky Institute, Germany

Dr. Wibool Piyawattanametha, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, Thailand

Dr. Andrew W. Poon, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

Dr. Jonathan Wierer, North Carolina State University, USA

Associate Editors

Dr. Islam Ashry, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia

Dr. Jian Chen, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Dr. Angela Dudley, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

Dr. William Fenwick, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA

Dr. María R. Fernández-Ruiz Universidad de Alcalá, Spain

Dr. Amirhossein Ghazisaeidi, Nokia Bell Labs, France

Dr. Mariangela Gioannini, Politenico di Torino, Italy

Dr. Paul Anthony Haigh, AT&T, USA

Dr. Lingling Huang, Beijing Institute of Technology, China

Prof. Zhaoran (Rena) Huang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

Dr. Ezra Ip, NEC Labs America, USA

Dr. Diaa Khalil, Ain Shams University, Egypt

Dr. Meiwei Kong, Tongji University, China

Prof. Jongwon Lee, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea

Dr. Kwanil Lee, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Korea

Dr. Ruben Luis, National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Japan

Dr. Sha Shiong Ng, University Science Malaysia, Malaysia

Prof. Dr. Edson Porto da Silva, Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil

Dr. Sujan Rajbhandari, University of Strathclyde, UK

Prof. San-Wan Ryu, Chonnam National University, Korea

Dr. Haiding Sun, University of Science and Technology of China, China

Prof. Qijie Wang, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore

Dr. Jing Xu, Zhejiang University, China

Prof. Rui Q. Yang, University of Oklahoma, USA

Prof. Chao Zhao, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Prof. Zhaoyu Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China

Prof. Linjie Zhou, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Prof. Renjie Zhou, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Prof. Wei Zhou, Virginia Tech, USA

Publication Office

Publications Coordinator

Sylvia Hinkson
IEEE – Photonics Society
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
Phone: +1 732 562-3920
Email: s.hinkson@ieee.org 

Publications Portfolio Manager

Laura A. Lander
IEEE Photonics Society
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
Phone: +1 732 465 6479
Email: l.lander@ieee.org

This publication is a hybrid journal, allowing either Traditional manuscript submission or Open Access (author-pays OA) manuscript submission.

The OA option, if selected, enables unrestricted public access to the article via IEEE Xplore. The OA option will be offered to the author post-acceptance during final file submission. The traditional option, if selected, enables access to all qualified subscribers and purchasers via IEEE Xplore. No OA payment is required.

Fees:
For hybrid journals, the OA article processing fee in 2025 is $2,645 USD plus other applicable fees (e.g., over-length paper charges and color page charges).

Discounts:
IEEE will apply a discount to current IEEE members. IEEE Members will receive a 5% discount, and members of IEEE Societies will receive a 20% discount. Discounts cannot be combined or applied to any other fees such as over-length article or color page charges.

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters Awards

Annually, we recognize significant contributions to IEEE Photonics Technology Letters with the following awards:

IEEE Photonics Technology Letters Outstanding Reviewer Award
Nominated by the Associate Editors, the selection committee chooses reviewers to receive the PTL Outstanding Reviewer Award. The award is based on three criteria: quality of comments, timeliness of reviews, and the number of reviews completed. 
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters Best Paper Award
This is awarded to the paper considered the best among the papers published in the IEEE Photonics Technology Letters during the previous three calendar years. Reviewed by the PTL selection committee, the best paper is selected annually based on four criteria: originality, technical content, impact, and presentation.

author center

Resources and tools to help you write, prepare, and share your research work more effectively.

open access

Open AccessFor detailed information, visit Basic Information About Open Access (OA). 

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