1. Title

The title should be concise but informative. Avoid beginning with an article or a preposition. The words "new" or "novel" should be avoided in the title and the text for legal reasons. Titles may be edited by the publisher to facilitate computer search.

2. Author names and Affiliations

Author names should be given in full and consistent form to facilitate indexing. Affiliations and postal addresses for all authors should appear on the title page.

3. Abstract

The abstract should be no longer than 100 words. It should be informative, without descriptive words or citations, and contain the major conclusions and quantitative results or other significant items in the paper. Together with the title, the abstract must be adequate as an index to all the subjects treated in the paper, and will be used as a base for indexing.

4. OCIS Codes

OCIS codes should be provided to help with indexing. This set of codes was formulated by the Optical Society of America and well-known in the optical research world. OCIS codes are available on Chinese Optics Letters’ web page and the OSA publication web pages. Each manuscript must be given 2-4 OCIS codes below the abstract, and the principal index code should be placed first.

5. Equations

Equations should be punctuated and aligned to bring out their structure, and numbered consecutively in round brackets on the right-hand side of the page.

Notation. Notation must be legible, clear, compact, and consistent with standard usage. In general, acronyms should be defined at first use. 

Variables and Vectors. Set single-letter variables in italics (Eg. M). Set vectors in boldface (Eg. m). Functions, derivative "d," abbreviations, and multi-letter identifiers should be set in roman (plain) type (Eg. α, cos, ∫...dx). 

Fences. For simple bracketing the usual order of parentheses and brackets is { [ ( { [ ( ) ] } ) ] }. 
Bit and Byte. The standard abbreviations for bit and byte are b and B, respectively. To avoid confusion, these units should be spelled out in most cases (1 bit, 20 GB). Display equations should be broken and aligned for two-column display unless spanning across two columns is essential. Equations should be centered with equation numbers set flush right. For Math Type math, use the Format Equations feature to format all equations as Times + Symbol 10. Note: There must be a blank line space above and below each displayed equation.

6. References

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first referenced in the body of the manuscript. Two references [2,3] should be included together, separated by a comma, and three or more consecutive references should be indicated by the bounding numbers and an en dash [1-4]. When compiling your references, be sure to include the titles of articles. COL requires this information before a paper can be sent to peer review. The reference titles will subsequently be removed by copy editors before they are published, so this information is not included in the length estimate sent to authors when a positive decision is made by the editor. All reference authors should be included in the reference list but when reference authors are mentioned in the text, use surnames only (unless further clarity is needed), and use "et al." and first author name when three or more authors are given. The format of references is as follows:

Journal paper

1. Q. Ji, X. Ma, J. Sun, H. Zhang, and Y. Yao, "Novel method for measurement of effective cavity length of DBR fiber", Chin. Opt. Lett. 8, 398 (2010).

Book

2. N. Bloembergen, Nonlinear Optics (Springer, 1965).

Paper in published conference proceedings

3. R. E. Kalman, "Algebraic aspects of the generalized inverse of a rectangular matrix", in Proceedings of Advanced Seminar on Generalized Inverse and Applications 111 (1976).

SPIE proceedings

4. S. K. Griebel, M. Richardson, K. E. Devenport, and H. S. Hinton, "Experimental performance of an ATM-based buffered hyperplane CMOSSEED smart pixel array", Proc. SPIE 3005, 254 (1997).

Paper accepted for publication

5. H. Qi, M. Zhu, W. Zhang, K. Yi, H. He, and J. Shao, “Dependence of wavefront errors on the nonuniformity of thin film", Chin. Opt. Lett. (to be published).

Internet links

6. A. G. Ramm, H. Wang, and J. Ye, "Invisible obstacles", www.arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0608034 (June 1, 2011).

Patent

7. K. Zhang, J. Zhang, R. Wang, R. Guo, J. Wang, and K. Peng, “All solid state single frequency and frequency-doubled laser” (in Chinese) Chinese Patent ZL98125474.8 (2000).

7. Figures and Tables

Figures should be suitable (resolution above 300 dpi) for immediate reproduction and embedded in the text. They should be set as one column wide (6-8 cm) if possible unless two-column display is essential. In the figures, the main lines should be about 0.3 mm in width, and the assistant lines 0.15 mm. Notations in the figures should be distinct and consistent with the same ones in the text, and their font size will be 7-9 pt. Figures should also be uploaded as separate figure files. Each figure should have its own caption. Color Art is Online Only, and free to authors.

Tables must be numbered in order of appearance and identified with appropriate titles. The table title, which should be brief, goes above the table. Note that tables are usually typeset, not scanned (tables cannot be electronically reduced in size). Tables should be set in one column wide if possible and be placed near their first mention in the body.

8. Article Length and Proof

Note that Chinese Optics Letters has a limit of five printed pages. If a paper exceeds this limit, it must be shortened before the paper is accepted. If the page proof is over the five-page limit, the proof must be shortened before the paper can be assigned to a final issue. Authors should use the COL Word or LaTeX templates to prepare manuscripts to facilitate length checking.