The Chinese Laser Press, a press hosted by Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM) of the Chinese Academy of Science, and the Chinese Optical Society, released the 2019 Award for China’s Top 10 Optical Breakthroughs on Mar. 20 in Shanghai. 20 research results, classified by fundamental research and applied research, were awarded, among which some hot topics, such as photonic chip, smart laser and full color laser display were applauded by the awarding committee.

Initiated by Chinese Laser Press in 2005, this event aims to disseminate innovative and important achievements by Chinese researchers and further boost the development of optics in China.

The topics of this award cover all fields related to optics. The whole evaluation process consists of three stages, i.e. recommendation, preliminary selection and final selection.

2019 Award Winners

Fundamental Research (listed in no particular order)

1. Symmetry-breaking-induced nonlinear optics at a microcavity surface

2. Deep-subwavelength features of photonic skyrmions in a confined electromagnetic field with orbital angular momentum

3. Realization of a three-dimensional photonic topological insulator

4. Efficient and stable emission of warm-white light from lead-free halide double perovskites

5. Visible quantum dot light-emitting diodes with simultaneous high brightness and efficiency

6. Giant nonreciprocal second harmonic generation from antiferromagnetic bilayer CrI₃

7. Self-Organized Kilotesla Magnetic-Tube Array in an Expanding Spherical Plasma Irradiated by kHz Femtosecond Laser Pulses

8. A solid-state source of strongly entangled photon pairs with high brightness and indistinguishability

9. Compressed Ultrafast Spectral-Temporal Photography

10. Quantum wave–particle superposition in a delayed-choice experiment

Applied Research (listed in no particular order)

1. Arbitrarily Routed Mode-division Multiplexed Photonic Circuits for Dense Integration

2. Intelligent programmable mode-locked fiber laser with a human-like algorithm

3. Multi-color live-cell super-resolution volume imaging with multi-angle interference microscopy

4. Nonreciprocal Amplification with Four-Level Hot Atoms

5. High-performance hybrid silicon and lithium niobate Mach–Zehnder modulators for 100 Gbits^-1 and beyond

6. Realization of wafer-scale nanogratings with sub-50 nm period through vacancy epitaxy

7. An All-Inorganic Perovskite-Phase Rubidium Lead Bromide Nanolaser

8. Beating the Fundamental Rate-Distance Limit in a Proof-of-Principle Quantum Key Distribution System

9. Chirality invertible superstructure mediated active planar optics

10. Full-color laser displays based on organic printed microlaser arrays