Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue dedicated to “Photorefractive Photonics and Beyond”, spanning over a wide range of research areas sharing interest in the description of fundamental physics, on the basic phenomena besides light–matter interaction or in possible fabrication methods for applications and perspectives in any field, including nonlinear optics as well as sensing, photonics, new materials and photoinduced phenomena.

This Special Issue aims to gather contributes on advanced research in photorefractive effects and related light-driven phenomena on materials and relative applications. The focus will include the description of fundamental physics behind light–matter interaction as well as experimental and theoretical results. In an open-minded approach, it looks forward to stimulating cross-fertilization between different research areas dealing with the different light–matter interactions triggering photorefractivity but going far beyond it and exploring new ways to exploit these phenomena. This Special Issue is intended to be a collection boosting the synergy between photonics, processing and fabrication methods, material development, investigation techniques as well as relative applications including innovative approaches and advances.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, short communications/letters and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Nonlinear light–matter interaction and applications: wave mixing, ultrafast processes, beam propagation dynamics, solitons, light beam interactions, frequency conversion (UV, VIS, IR, THz), optical limiting and modulation, self-organization and spatio-temporal dynamics, nonlinear plasmonics;
• Photorefractive and hybrid materials: inorganic, organic and hybrid materials for photorefraction and nonlinear optics; crystals, liquid crystals, polymers, nonlinear fibers, gain media; organic semiconductors, perovskites;
• Signal processing and photonics: integrated optical devices, all-optical signal processing, data storage, analog computing, electro-optics;
• Materials micro- and nano-engineering: ferroelectric domain patterning, microfabrication techniques, waveguides, resonators, optofluidics, metasurfaces and metamaterials, thin films, quantum dots, diffraction gratings;
• Holography, optical processing and imaging: dynamic wavefront sensing, image processing, 3D imaging and displays, holographic techniques, photon-correlation techniques, photoacoustics, spatial light modulation, adaptive optics;
• Fundamentals and novel applications of charge and exciton generation and transport: microscopic modelling, self-localized charge states, bulk photovoltaic effect and photoferroelectrics, water splitting, photocatalysis, droplet manipulation; 
• Optical analogues of complex phenomena: optical lattices, waveguide arrays, optical analogies of quantum effects and curved space-time phenomena, fundamental physics.

If you would like to contact the Guest Editors, please send an email to <pr22@dfa.unipd.it>. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Annamaria Zaltron
Prof. Dr. Cinzia Sada
Dr. Marco Bazzan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• photorefractivity
• holography
• non-linear light–matter interaction
• optical processing
• integrated optical devices
• photorefractive hybrid materials
• materials micro- and nano-engineering