Applied Physics Letters

Applied Physics Letters
Title	Applied Physics Letters
Discipline	Applied physics
Abbreviation	Appl. Phys. Lett.
Publisher	American Institute of Physics
Country	United States
Frequency	Weekly
History	1962–present
Impact	4.9
Impact-year	2024
Issn	0003-6951

Contents

Applied Physics Letters

Applied Physics Letters is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing brief reports on significant new findings in applied physics, materials science, electronics, photonics, and nanotechnology. The journal serves researchers at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, and University of Cambridge, and is associated with organizations including the American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Royal Society, and Max Planck Society. Authors who publish in the journal frequently come from laboratories like Bell Labs, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Argonne National Laboratory.

History

Applied Physics Letters was established in 1962 during a period of rapid expansion in post-war research linked to initiatives such as the Space Race, the Apollo program, and Cold War-era funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Early editors and contributors included figures affiliated with Bell Labs, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and IBM Research, and the journal quickly became a venue for short-format reports akin to letters published in contemporaneous outlets such as Physical Review Letters and Nature. Over the decades the title evolved alongside milestones like the invention of the laser, the development of semiconductor integrated circuits epitomized by events at Intel, the discovery of the quantum Hall effect, and the rise of nanotechnology research programs at institutions such as ETH Zurich and University of California, Berkeley.

The journal emphasizes concise reports on experiments, devices, and theories with immediate potential impact for applications in fields exemplified by telecommunications companies such as AT&T, Nokia, and Ericsson; research centers like CERN, Fermilab, and JPL; and industrial research at Toyota Research Institute, Siemens, and Samsung Electronics. Topics include photonics research linked to the development of the fiber-optic communication infrastructure used by corporations like Verizon and Comcast; studies in two-dimensional materials that follow breakthroughs at University of Manchester; spintronics work influenced by groups at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory; and superconducting device advances that recall achievements at Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Cambridge. Contributions often intersect with programs funded by agencies such as European Research Council, DARPA, and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Manuscripts are handled by an editorial board populated by academics and researchers from universities and institutes including Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Tsinghua University. The peer-review workflow typically engages reviewers from research groups at Rice University, University of Tokyo, University of California, San Diego, Seoul National University, and University of Sydney. Accepted letters are copyedited and published rapidly in weekly issues and online collections alongside special sections that highlight themes related to conferences such as American Physical Society March Meeting, SPIE Photonics West, and MRS Fall Meeting.

The journal has influenced technology trajectories that intersect with enterprises like Intel Corporation, Samsung, Google research labs, and startups spun out of Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Citation metrics compare the title with peer journals including Physical Review Letters, Nature Photonics, Nano Letters, and IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. Its role in disseminating rapid communications has been noted by scholars and organizations such as the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, and Institute of Physics for enabling quick uptake of innovations into commercial R&D pipelines at firms like Texas Instruments and Applied Materials.

Landmark letters published in the journal have preceded or complemented seminal work related to topics including thin-film transistor advances reflecting developments at Eastman Kodak Company and Sony Corporation, high-mobility two-dimensional materials following discoveries at University of Manchester and Columbia University, and photonic crystal device demonstrations echoing contributions from Harvard University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Papers reporting on early nanoscale transistor scaling paralleled industry milestones at Intel and TSMC; works on organic electronics connected to research at University of Cambridge and University of Groningen; and reports on plasmonics related to teams at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and Georgia Institute of Technology.

The journal is indexed in major services and databases associated with institutions and providers such as Web of Science Group, Scopus, InCites, CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service), INSPEC, and EBSCO Information Services. Abstracting and citation aggregation tools used by researchers at University of Oxford, University of California system, Imperial College London, Australian National University, and Peking University include these indexes as well as discovery platforms managed by organizations like ProQuest and Clarivate Analytics.

Category:Physics journals