1. science
2. physics
3. optics

Conference Chair Welcome Letter
The 4th Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources Conference（ALPS’15）
Noriaki Miyanaga
Conference Chair
Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University
We are delighted that you have joined us in Yokohama to share your latest research
results in the fields of lasers and photon sources in 2015, which is the International
Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
This is the 4th Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources Conference (ALPS’15) within
the framework of the OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Congress (OPIC 2015),
which consists of seven optics-related scientific conferences.
The ALPS aims to provide an international forum for discussion of recent progress
in lasers and photon sources, and is intended to cover both basic research and
industrial applications. In ALPS’15, we will collaborate with the Conference on Laser
Energetics (CLE 2015) and the International Conference on High Energy Density
Sciences (HEDS 2015) to hold a special joint session on high-energy and ultra-intense
lasers and their applications.
Over the next three days, 131 papers will be presented, including 11 invited papers,
57 oral presentations, and 63 poster presentations, and the conference offers the
chance to form a network with colleagues in your field from around the world. In
addition, the OPTICS & PHOTONICS International Exhibition (OPIE 2015) is held
jointly at the congress site. We encourage you to actively participate in all aspects of
the Congress and Exhibition and hope that you will find these interactions to be
beneficial.
We hope that you enjoy your time at the conference, and that you will also take this
opportunity to explore the rest of Yokohama.
[ALPS’15]
The ALPS (Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources Conference) aims to provide an
international forum for discussion of recent progress in lasers and photon sources, and is
intended to cover both basic research and industrial applications. In ALPS’15, 131 papers will
be presented, including 11 invited papers, 57 oral presentations, and 63 poster presentations in
the fields of advanced lasers and photon sources.
The conference scope of ALPS covers a variety of technologies and applications;
Novel optical materials, High average power lasers, High peak power lasers,
High power fiber / diode lasers, High energy light sources, Nonlinear optics,
Metamaterials, Optical devices and techniques for bio and medical applications
1) Technology trend
The technology trend is summarized as follows;
For the scientific applications
- frequency comb as a standard light source like a precision clock,
- high-peak power exceeding 1015 W (peta watt) useful to laser particle acceleration,
- attosecond coherent XUV lasers for the investigation of ultra-fast phenomena
For the industrial applications
- high-average power fiber lasers and laser diodes for the material processing
- Terahertz (THz) radiation for material analysis and metrology
- mid infrared (MIR) lasers for material analysis and medical applications
- Metamaterials as human-controlled new functional devices
For the medical applications
- Raman spectroscopy and optical tomography
2) Topics
2-1 Joint Session (April 22, 2015)
ALPS will collaborate with the Conference on Laser Energetics (CLE 2015) and the
International Conference on High Energy Density Sciences (HEDS 2015) to hold a special
joint session on high-energy and ultra-intense lasers and their applications. The seven invited
talks will cover the recent progress and future great challenge on GeV electron acceleration
using PW laser (Korea), the proton acceleration by laser (Japan), femtosecond x-ray free
electron laser SACLA (Japan), the planned gamma ray source using exawatt (1018 W) laser
(Russia), the laser-produced electron-positron jet (USA and Japan), and the laboratory
astrophysics experiments using high-energy lasers (USA).
2-2 Novel NIR-MIR Sources (April 23-24, 2015)
“Towards a 30 GHz Astrocomb for the Near-Infrared” (Invited)
G. Ycas (Univ. of Colorado, USA)
“Challenges and Opportunities for Mid-infrared Fibre Sources” (Invited)
S. D. Jackson (Macquarie University, Australia)
“High-Energy Few-cycle Mid-IR Parametric Amplification” (Invited)
A. Baltuska (Vienna Univ. of Tech., Austria)
2-3 Ultra-intense lasers and Soft X-Ray Lasers (April 23-24, 2015)
“Progress Towards a 10PW Ultraintense Laser Facility: Demonstration of 5PW High Gain
Large Aperture Ti:Sapphire Amplifier” (Invited)
R. Li (SIOM, CAS, China)
“High Average Power Table-top Soft X-Ray Lasers” (Invited)
J. J. Rocca (Colorado State Univ., USA)
2-4 Other lasers and photon sources (April 23-24, 2015)
“Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy for Label-Free Imaging and Spectroscopy”
(Invited) Biomedical Photonics
Y. Ozeki (Univ. Tokyo, Japan)
“Recent Progress in Resonance Enhancement of Light Emissions on Metasurfaces” (Invited)
Metamaterials
M. Iwanaga (NIMS, Japan)
“First Achievement of Nitride Semiconductor Based Terahertz Quantum Cascade Laser”
(Invited) THz source
H. Hirayama (RIKEN, Japan)
“Parametric Processes in Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Photonic Crystals” (Invited) Novel
optical material
K. Gallo (KTH Royal Inst of Tech., Sweden)
2-4 Power LD/fiber for material processing (April 24, 2015)
The meeting to report the result of “Advanced Laser and Processing Technology for
Next-generation Materials Project” of NEDO will be held on April 22-24, 2015 as an event of
Laser EXPO. Some of results (power laser diodes, kW-class CW and QCW fiber lasers and
kW-class pulsed fiber laser for CFRP processing) also will be presented in ALPS’15.
3) Impacts on science and technology
The remarkable progress has been done for the scientific, industrial and medical
applications. Impacts on science and technology are summarized as,
- Development of new tool for material analysis and precision metrology
- High-thorough-put processing of hard-to-cut materials (ex. CFRP/CFRTP useful to
reduce the weight of Vehicle)
- Generation of high-energy quantum beams by lasers (electron/proton/gamma-ray
beams)
- Ultra-short-pulse coherent XUV and x-rays for the investigation of ultra-fast
phenomena
- Laser comb as a precision frequency standard taking the place of atomic clock
- Medical screening and imaging using laser and nonlinear optics
- Artificial materials (Metamaterials) having novel properties that have not yet been
found in nature