In 2003, previous Chinese Journals of Lasers changed her name into Chinese Optics Letters, which announcing the first-launched optics journal published in English in China.

COL was Indexed in SCIE in 2008, and got its first IF 0.804 accordingly, which ranked 2^nd out of five SCIE-indexed optical journals in Asia at that time.

In 2019, COL was successfully granted the China’s Top STM Journals Project.

In 2020, COL updated its cover and inner format and made perfect combination of art with optics and photonics science.

In 2021, COL set FAST TRACK, which promises excellent manuscripts to being accepted within 10 days, being published within 30 days.

In 2021, COL launched its new English website: researching.cn/col

On August 1, 2022, COL bonded with another journal Photonics Research (PR) as Sister Journals, which starts fast track for manuscripts transferred from PR.

According to Clarivate journal citation reports of 2022, COL IF climbed to 3.5 and ranked 34^th of 100 SCIE-indexed optics journals, which marking an important milestone in the time span of 20 years.

In Issue 1 of 2023, COL published the Editorial entitled “ Chinese Optics Letters at its 20^th anniversary: harvesting and sowing anew ” to better mark her 20^th anniversary.

Chinese Optics Letters Workshop: Lithium Niobate Based Photonic Devices (2021)

Chinese Optics Letters Workshop: Ultrafast Optics: fundamentals and applications (2022)