Photonics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details.
Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject

Contents

Photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons, particularly in the visible light and near infra-red spectrum. Photonics as a science is closely related to quantum optics and optoelectronics with somewhat unclear boundaries. "Quantum optics" often means fundamental research, and "photonics" often means more application-related research. The term "optoelectronics" by construction means a somewhat narrower field than photonics, dealing only with active elements involving an electrical interaction, but often includes parts of passive photonics as well. Also, the overlap between all these fields and "optics" is unclear, and different definitions are used in different parts of the world and in different industries.

The term photonics sometimes, but not always, implies a goal of establishing an electronics of photons instead of electrons.

Polaritonics differs with photonics in that the fundamental information carrier is a phonon-polariton, which is a mixture of photons and phonons, and operates in the range of frequencies from 300 gigahertz to approximately 10 terahertz. Photonics typically operates at frequencies on the order of hundreds of terahertz.

The field of photonics has a strong interest in optical communication. The science and applications of photonics are usually based on laser light.

[edit] Overview of photonics research

Refraction of photons by a prism
Enlarge
Refraction of photons by a prism

The science of photonics includes the emission, transmission, amplification, detection, modulation, and switching of light.

Photonic devices include optoelectronic devices such as lasers and photodetectors, as well as optical fiber, photonic crystals, planar waveguides, and other passive optical elements.

Applications of photonics include light detection, telecommunications, information processing, illumination, metrology, spectroscopy, holography, medicine (surgery, vision correction, endoscopy, health monitoring), laser material processing, visual art, biophotonics, agriculture, robotics, and defense.

[edit] History of photonics

Photonics as a field really began in 1960, with the invention of the laser, followed in the 1970s by the development of optical fibers as a medium for transmitting information using light beams, and the Erbium-doped fiber amplifier. These inventions formed the basis for the telecommunications revolution of the late 20th century, and provided the infrastructure for the internet.

Photonics as a field was largely focused on communications, until the dot-com crash circa 2001. However, photonics covers a huge range of science and technology applications, including:-

  • laser manufacturing,
  • biological and chemical sensing,
  • medical diagnostics and therapy,
  • display technology,
  • optical computing.

Various non-telecom photonics applications exhibit a strong growth particularly since the dot-com crash, partly because many companies have been looking for new application areas quite successfully. A huge further growth of photonics can be expected for the case that the current development of silicon photonics will be successful.

[edit] Applications of Photonics

[edit] Periodicals

  • Photonics Spectra (ISSN 0731-1230)
  • The Photonics Handbook (ISSN 1044-1425)
  • The Photonics Dictionary (ISSN 1044-1425)
  • BioPhotonics (ISSN 1081-8693)
  • EuroPhotonics (ISSN 1091-6083)

[edit] Sources

[edit] See also

Portal:Physics
 Physics Portal

[edit] Wiktionary

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/h/o/Photonics.html"