Optics research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) was established in Washington, DC in 1923 and is the corporate laboratory for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Today NRL is a world-class research institution conducting a broad program of research and development (R&D), including many areas of optical science and technology. NRL is conducting cutting-edge R&D programs to explore new scientific areas to enable unprecedented Navy capabilities as well as improving current technologies to increase the effectiveness of Navy and other Department of Defense systems. This paper provides a broad overview of many of NRL's achievements in optics. Some of the remaining articles in this feature issue will discuss NRL's most recent research in individual areas, while other articles will present more detailed historical perspectives of NRL's research concerning particular scientific topics.