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Definition: the science and technology of light
Photonics is the science and technology of light, with an emphasis on applications. An alternative term is "lightwave technology". At the heart of photonics are technologies for generating light (e.g. with lasers or with light-emitting diodes), transmitting, amplifying, modulating and detecting light, and particularly using light for practical purposes. It thus heavily builds on optical technology, supplemented with modern developments such as lasers and amplifiers. Typical application areas are
- information technology: e.g. optical fiber communications, free space optical communications, and optical data storage, in the future probably also optical computing
- health care and life sciences: e.g. medical diagnostics and therapy in ophthalmology and cancer research; biology, biotechnology, DNA analysis
- optical metrology in various areas: e.g. frequency metrology for time keeping or distance measurements with lasers
- sensing: e.g. fiber-optic sensors, high-speed cameras, infrared motion detectors or industrial process control
- manufacturing: e.g. laser material processing, semiconductor chip manufacturing, printing
- lighting: e.g. energy-efficient LED illumination
- defense and space technology: e.g. satellite surveillance systems, navigation, night vision, imagers, missile guidance, anti-missile systems, high-power directed-energy weapons
Photonic key technologies of particular importance are lasers and amplifiers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibers and other waveguides, optical modulators, photodetectors (including cameras), and displays.
There is an analogy to electronics: just as electronics is the utilization of electrons, photonics works on the basis of photons. The quantum (photon) nature of light is often, but by far not always of interest in photonics.
Photonics is considered as one of the key technologies of the 21st century. It supplements electronics in the form of optoelectronics (optronics) and exhibits a strong market growth, which is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. So far, photonics has reached a deep penetration of mass markets only in a few areas, e.g. laser diodes in CD/DVD players and related data storage equipment. Huge growth opportunities could arise from the development of silicon photonics and other technologies for photonic integrated circuits, from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with improved output power and efficiency, or from laser types (e.g. VECSELs) which are suitable for cost-effective mass production.
Bibliography
| [1] | B. E. A. Saleh and M. C. Teich, "Fundamentals of Photonics", John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (1991) |
See also: laser physics, optoelectronics, quantum electronics, silicon photonics, photonic integrated circuits
