Photonics
The word 'photonics' appeared in the late 1960s to describe a research field whose goal was to use light to perform functions that traditionally fell within the typical domain of electronics, such as telecommunications, information processing, etc.
Photonics as a field really began with the invention of the laser in 1960, and the laser diode 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.
History of photonics
Historically, the term photonics only came into common use among the scientific community in the 1980s as fiber-optic transmission of electronic data was adopted widely by telecommunications network operators (although it had earlier been coined). At that time, the term was adopted widely within Bell Laboratories. Its use was confirmed when the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society established an archival journal named Photonics Technology Letters at the end of the 1980s.
During the period leading up to the dot-com crash circa 2001, photonics as a field was largely focused on telecommunications. 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.
The science of photonics includes the generation, emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, detection and sensing of light. The term photonics thereby emphasizes that photons are neither particles nor waves — they are different in that they have both particle and wave nature. It basically covers all technical applications of light over the whole spectrum from ultraviolet over the visible to the near-, mid- and far-infrared. Most applications, however, are in the range of the visible and near infrared light. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s.
Applications
Applications of photonics are ubiquitous. Included are all areas from everyday life to the most advanced science, e.g. light detection, telecommunications, information processing, lighting, metrology, spectroscopy, holography, medicine (surgery, vision correction, endoscopy, health monitoring), military technology, laser material processing, visual art, biophotonics, agriculture, and robotics.
Just as applications of electronics have expanded dramatically since the first transistor was invented in 1948, the unique applications of photonics continue to emerge. Those which are established as economically important applications for semiconductor photonic devices include optical data recording, fiber optic telecommunications, laser printing (based on xerography), displays, and optical pumping of high-power lasers. The potential applications of photonics are virtually unlimited and include chemical synthesis, medical diagnostics, on-chip data communication, laser defense, and fusion energy, to name several interesting additional examples.
- Consumer equipment: barcode scanner, printer, CD/DVD/Blu-ray devices, remote control devices
- Telecommunications: optical fiber communications, optical down converter to microwave
- Medicine: correction of poor eyesight, laser surgery, surgical endoscopy, tattoo removal
- Industrial manufacturing: the use of lasers for welding, drilling, cutting, and various methods of surface modification
- Construction: laser leveling, laser rangefinding, smart structures
- Aviation: photonic gyroscopes lacking mobile parts
- Military: IR sensors, command and control, navigation, search and rescue, mine laying and detection
- Entertainment: laser shows, beam effects, holographic art
- Information processing
- Metrology: time and frequency measurements, rangefinding
- Photonic computing: clock distribution and communication between computers, printed circuit boards, or within optoelectronic integrated circuits; in the future: quantum computing
- This page was last modified on 14 March 2010 at 09:29.
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What is Photonics?
The term Photonics was coined in 1967 by Pierre Aigrain.....
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