photonics (original) (raw)

Author: the photonics expert (RP)

Definition: the science and technology of light

Alternative terms: lightwave technology, photon science

Category: photonic devices

• photonics
  • silicon photonics
  • quantum photonics
  • quantum electronics
  • space photonics
  • astrophotonics

Related: quantum photonicslaser physicsoptoelectronicsquantum electronicsopticssilicon photonicsphotonic integrated circuits

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Contents

What is Photonics?

Photonics is the science and technology of light, with an emphasis on applications: harnessing light in a wide range of fields. The term photonics was coined by the French physicist Pierre Aigrain in 1967 and has been widely used since the mid-1970s. An alternative term is lightwave technology. There is also the term photon science, which refers to the scientific part of photonics.

Light (high-frequency electromagnetic radiation) obviously plays the central role in photonics. The used light includes not only visible light, but also infrared and ultraviolet light. In some cases, radiation in other spectral regions is also involved; for example, there are photonic terahertz sources and X-ray scintillation detectors.

At the heart of photonics are technologies for generating light (e.g. with lasers or with light-emitting diodes), transmitting, amplifying, modulating, detecting and analyzing light (e.g. with spectroscopy), and, most importantly, using light for various practical purposes. It therefore relies heavily on optical technology (→ optics), supplemented with modern developments such as optoelectronics (mostly involving semiconductors), laser systems, optical amplifiers and novel materials (e.g. photonic metamaterials). The scientific basis is mainly within physics, in particular optical physics and related areas such as laser physics and quantum optics.

There is a close analogy to electronics: Like electronics manipulates electrons, photonics generates, guides, modulates, detects and converts light. Photonics supplements electronics in the form of optoelectronics (optronics). The quantum (photon) nature of light is sometimes central — for example in quantum photonics for secure communications and future quantum information processing — but many photonic systems operate effectively in regimes where classical wave optics provides an accurate and practical description. Substantial research and engineering continue to be required to translate laboratory-scale quantum and ultrafast photonic concepts into robust, widely deployed technologies.

Photonic Key Technologies

Core technologies include:

• Laser sources and optical amplifier systems generate and boost coherent light across many wavelengths and power levels, enabling communications, sensing, metrology, and laser material processing.
• Light-emitting diodes and other non-laser light sources provide efficient illumination and optical excitation for imaging, spectroscopy, and display backlights.
• Optical fibers and integrated waveguides confine and route light with low loss, using single-mode, multimode, polarization-maintaining and photonic crystal designs depending on the application.
• Optical modulators and optical switches encode information and control amplitude, phase, frequency, and polarization, using effects such as the electro-optic, thermo-optic, acousto-optic, electroabsorption, carrier-injection or micro-electro-mechanical response.
• Photodetectors — from simple photodiodes to single-photon detectors, cameras (CCD/CMOS), and superconducting detectors — convert light signals into electrical signals with specified sensitivity, bandwidth, and dynamic range.
• Spectral-control components such as dichroic mirrors, fiber Bragg gratings, etalons, diffraction gratings and arrayed waveguide gratings select, shape, and stabilize optical spectra.
• Nonlinear-optical devices for nonlinear frequency conversion — such as frequency doubling, sum and difference frequency generation or optical parametric oscillators — generate light at new wavelengths and connect disparate spectral bands, e.g. in frequency metrology.
• Ultrafast lasers and amplifiers are enabling many areas, from fundamental research to laser material processing.
• Frequency metrology using tools like frequency combs enables extreme precision with impacts on various fields such as fundamental research, navigation and timing synchronization of complex systems.
• Photonic integrated circuits on platforms like silicon photonics and others combine multiple functions — sources, modulators, detectors, and filters — on a chip to reduce size, weight, power, and cost while improving manufacturability.

Market Achievements and Potentials of Photonics

Photonics has moved from laboratory curiosity to enabling infrastructure across the global economy. Some mature, large-scale markets already depend on photonic components and systems, while several other domains show strong growth or long-term potential as costs fall and integration improves.

Areas with Already Achieved Substantial Market Penetration

In some areas of technology, photonics has already achieved a substantial market penetration:

• Telecommunications and data networking. Long-haul and metro backbone networks strongly rely on optical fiber communications for virtually all intercity and international traffic, and short-reach optical links are now pervasive inside and between data centers. Increasing deployment of artificial intelligence further strengthens that trend. Coherent transceivers, wavelength division multiplexing, and increasingly integrated silicon photonics platforms enable steady increases in capacity while also improving energy efficiency.
• Lighting and displays. Solid-state lighting based on LEDs has largely displaced incandescent lamps and many fluorescent lamps in residential, commercial, and outdoor lighting because of higher efficacy, longer lifetime, excellent controllability and compact size. Displays for televisions, monitors, and mobile devices are photonic at their core, using liquid-crystal light modulators with sophisticated backlights or emissive pixels with organic light-emitting structures, plus laser- or LED-based projection in specialized niches. Displays reach more and more application areas, e.g. as head-up displays in cars.
• Industrial laser processing. Manufacturing widely employs laser material processing — including laser cutting, welding, marking, laser surface modification, drilling, micromachining, and additive manufacturing. Fiber lasers and ultrafast solid-state lasers dominate many segments due to reliability, beam quality and falling cost per watt.
• Imaging and machine vision. Imaging with cameras has already entered mass markets — every smartphone has a more or less advanced micro-camera. Barcode and 2D/3D vision is essential in logistics and robotics. Machine vision also benefits from more advanced imaging techniques.
• Optical metrology and sensing. Distance measurements with lasers are routinely done with various techniques, and optical profilometers serve not only optics. Optical sensors are embedded throughout industry and infrastructure. Photonics enables a wide variety of sensors, from fiber-optic sensors for strain, temperature, and acoustic monitoring to high-speed cameras, infrared motion detectors, hyperspectral imagers, and instruments for industrial process control and environmental monitoring.
• Transportation and mobility. Automotive and aerospace systems use photonics for LIDAR-assisted driver assistance, cabin and driver monitoring, head-up displays, runway and air-traffic sensing, and rail and infrastructure inspection. Photonics also enables navigation sensors such as ring-laser and fiber-optic gyroscopes in airplanes.
• Medical diagnostics and therapy (biophotonics). Optical coherence tomography, endoscopy, ophthalmic imaging, surgical lasers, and fluorescence or Raman spectroscopy are routine in clinical practice. In vitro diagnostics use photometric and fluorometric readouts, while point-of-care devices increasingly incorporate compact light sources and detectors.
• Electricity generation. Photovoltaic cells constitute a major renewable-energy market with strong global growth. Utility-scale photovoltaics are among the lowest-cost electricity generation in most markets, while also being climate-friendly. Photonics also supports solar-cell fabrication, inline inspection, and performance monitoring, besides aiding wind power and grid planning with LIDAR.
• Environmental monitoring: LIDAR and other optical remote sensing techniques contribute to environmental monitoring.

Further growth in these areas is to be expected, driven by further cost reductions, growing application experience and pressing needs, e.g. for expanded energy generation particularly in the electricity sector.

Entered Areas with Substantial Growth

In some application areas, photonics has started to get traction and is more or less rapidly expanding:

• Data-center and high-performance computing interconnects. While photonic technology has started becoming important for medium- and long-haul data transmission, bandwidth growth and energy constraints are now pushing photonics closer to the processors. Pluggable optical modules are migrating to higher line rates, and co-packaged or on-package optics are being developed to reduce electrical power and latency.
• Mobility and robotics. Cameras are ubiquitous already in vehicles, and selected vehicle lines have adopted LIDAR or structured-light depth sensing for driver assistance, moving towards autonomous driving. Penetration is still uneven, but cost, reliability, and size improvements are accelerating adoption in passenger cars, trucks and robotics.
• Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality. Head-worn displays depend on photonic components — waveguides, micro-projectors, and compact lasers or micro-LEDs. Enterprise and training use cases are growing, while consumer markets are still sensitive to weight, brightness and cost.
• Security and safety. Photonic methods for identification, surveillance, and non-contact screening (from short-wave infrared imaging to bio-sensing) are expanding in transportation hubs, industrial plants, and smart-city deployments. The combination with electronics and artificial intelligence is essential.
• Buildings. Photonics supports structural-health monitoring of bridges, pipelines, and buildings using distributed fiber-optic sensors. Such technologies are increasingly adopted, recognizing their value for safety and efficient maintenance.
• Healthcare. Wearables and home diagnostics increasingly incorporate optical sensors for vital signs, tissue oxygenation, and biochemical markers. Ophthalmology uses optical coherence tomography, laser ablation and laser cutting, as does other surgery. Photonic diagnostic techniques like fluorescence imaging, flow cytometry and spectroscopic assays support many fields including oncology. Lasers for hair removal, vascular and pigmented lesions, skin resurfacing, and tattoo removal have become mainstream treatments. Laboratory medicine and genomics use photonic sequencing methods and fluorescence/chemiluminescence immunoassays. UV sources are used for disinfection.
• Defense and space. Defense and space photonics enable satellite imaging and sensing, navigation and guidance, night vision and thermal imagers, missile warning and seekers and — in specialized cases — high-power directed-energy systems, e.g. as anti-drone weapons. Free-space laser links for satellite backhaul and inter-satellite connectivity are transitioning from demonstrations to operational networks (e.g. Starlink). Adoption is driven by demand for higher throughput and lower latency, with parallel growth of optical ground-station networks.

Emerging Areas with High Long-term Potential

In some areas, a substantial long-term growth potential can be recognized, although technological maturity is not yet fully reached:

• Quantum photonics. Quantum key distribution and quantum metrology remain early-stage markets. Substantial technical challenges need to be overcome to realize photonic quantum computing — developed in competition with other technologies such as superconductors. Progress depends on scalable sources of indistinguishable photons, low-loss integrated circuits, and rugged packaging. Near-term revenue is likeliest in secure links and specialized sensors, while quantum computing appears to be a development for a more distant future.
• Artificial intelligence: AI has started to revolutionize many sectors, but struggles with huge computational demand and sharply increasing energy consumption. Photonics appears to have a substantial potential for powerful and at the same time highly efficient AI data processing, although such developments are at an early stage. Novel data processing paradigms may be utilized in the future, such as neuromorphic and analog photonic computing. Optical matrix-multiply engines and reservoir computing could accelerate certain workloads with high throughput per watt. The opportunity hinges on efficient modulators, low-loss interconnects, and error-tolerant algorithms, alongside mature optical–electrical interfaces.
• Advanced transport. Photonics contributions like LIDAR for simultaneous localization and mapping are vital for the development of autonomous cars and drones. Precise photonic timing transfer is needed for navigation purposes.
• Environmental monitoring and precision agriculture. Hyperspectral imaging and LIDAR instruments on drones, aircraft, and satellites enable crop health assessment, water management and emissions monitoring. Wider uptake follows reductions in sensor cost, data-processing overhead, and integration complexity.
• Healthcare at the edge. Advanced technology can be used in hospitals — for example, intraoperative OCT, hyperspectral imaging, fluorescence-guided surgery, photoacoustic imaging, label-free spectroscopic pathology, photodynamic therapy, ultrafast-laser microsurgery, photothermal and laser ablation with image guidance, fiber-optic sensors, and noninvasive optical blood analytics.

Specialized Niche Markets

Some applications offer special opportunities for photonics, but probably without large market volumes:

• Optical metrology and timing. Novel optical clocks are developed which substantially surpass the already amazing performance of cesium atomic clocks. This should eventually lead to a new definition of the second. Related advanced methods of frequency metrology enable ultra-precise timing synchronization over large distances, even in the context of space photonics. While such developments can be vital for strengthening the industrial basis and military potential, they may not offer substantial market potentials themselves.
• Astronomy. Astrophotonics provides vital features for astronomy, used mainly by a few major observatories and a few elite labs, keeping production runs small but high value. For example, frequency-comb-stabilized wavelength references enable centimeter-per-second radial-velocity precision for exoplanet searches. Photonic lanterns, integrated beam combiners, and aperiodic fiber Bragg gratings for sky-line suppression are further examples.
• Space science. Planetary missions use highly specialized laser altimeters and niche LIDAR solutions. Radiation-hardened fibers and photonic integrated circuits are essential for spaceborne links and metrology. Highly customized superconducting-nanowire detector receivers are vital to beyond-lunar communication links. Many details are mission-specific; procurement follows long, infrequent mission cycles.
• Gravitational-wave detection. Low-loss mirrors, ultra-quiet photodiodes, and quantum-noise–reduction subsystems are indispensable to observatories, yet purchased by only a few facilities worldwide.
• Synchrotron/FEL beamline optics. Custom monochromators, gratings, and VUV–EUV multilayer mirrors are essential for a few large user facilities.
• High-field physics lasers. Multi-joule femtosecond systems and OPCPA front-ends drive attosecond and laser-plasma experiments; each installation is a multi-year, custom build for a single lab.
• Defense. Various defense developments depend crucially on photonics but are so far used only in niche cases. Examples are standoff chemical/biological detection with Raman spectroscopy or laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, for example. Directed-energy weapons need high-power lasers, high-damage-threshold dielectric coatings, adaptive optics beam control and high-power fiber-optic pump combiners. Short-range, high-bandwidth blue-green communication links serve niche naval and special-operations needs.
• Downhole/high-temperature fiber sensing. Hydrogen-resistant, high-temperature fibers and Bragg gratings monitor wells and geothermal bores. Installations are valuable but sporadic, with harsh-environment qualifications capping supplier numbers.
• Terahertz photonics for non-destructive testing. Terahertz sources and detectors reveal defects in composites and coatings, yet adoption remains confined to aerospace and specialty labs.
• EUV lithography optical components. Multilayer mirrors, pellicles, and metrology optics are indispensable to some tool makers and fabs in the semiconductor industry.
• Healthcare. Fiber probes and compact spectrometers for intraoperative Raman/IR spectroscopy provide real-time tissue typing in some oncology centers; workflow and reimbursement constraints keep volumes modest. Optical dose-verification cameras are adopted by comprehensive cancer centers, not by general hospitals. Other examples are photoacoustic imaging and laser-ultrasound hybrids for functional imaging in breast/vascular clinics. Early clinical niches limit production to small series but might lead into growing markets.
• Museum and conservation hyperspectral imaging. Narrowband, high-fidelity cameras and lighting document artworks and artifacts.
• Forensic photonics kits. Portable multispectral and Raman tools support on-scene analysis for specialized forensic labs.

Such markets are so far small but still matter:

• Concentrated users and bespoke specs. End users are a few (national labs, observatories, space agencies, elite hospitals), and each project demands custom performance, packaging, and certification.
• Long qualification cycles. Radiation, vacuum, bio-compatibility, or safety certifications sharply raise per-unit cost and discourage volume products.
• Infrastructure coupling. Many systems only make sense inside larger facilities (synchrotrons, GW observatories, operating rooms), keeping adoption bounded.
• High consequence, high value. Despite low volumes, these markets drive frontier performance and may spill over into broader applications.

Various issues need to be considered by vendors when entering such markets:

• They need to compete on performance, reliability and lifetime support, not primarily on price.
• Chances arise from building service and calibration businesses, enabling recurring revenues.
• Export controls and compliance (ITAR/EAR, medical CE/FDA) can be critical factors.
• Partnerships with flagship users (observatories, national labs, leading clinics) are crucial for validating and publicizing capabilities, and for inspiring new applications.

Typical Challenges for Market Development of Photonics

Competition with Other Technologies

In many markets, a new photonic solution competes with established electrical or mechanical approaches that are seen to already work well enough. Even when photonics delivers better performance (for example, higher measurement fidelity or faster throughput), switching can be difficult because buyers face unfamiliar concepts, staff training, integration risk, and procurement inertia. The initial task is to identify early adopters, support them through time-consuming and costly evaluations, and then communicate credible use cases, total cost of ownership (TCO), and return on investment (ROI). Reference deployments, interoperability with existing tools, and clear maintenance pathways help the technology gain traction. This diffusion process can take years — even where the technical advantages are substantial — and it may stall if benefits are not demonstrated in routine operations rather than only in the lab.

Cost Issues

In many application areas, market penetration is limited primarily by cost. Lasers and precision optical instruments are often expensive because the manufacturing, alignment, and qualification of optical hardware are demanding:

• Because light has very short wavelengths, many optical components require micrometer- to microradian-level alignment. As a result, highly precise opto-mechanics are needed, and alignment procedures can be difficult and time-consuming, especially when they cannot be fully automated.
• Using fiber connectors and fiber optics can avoid some free-space alignment steps, but fiber handling, polishing, and connector cleanliness are more delicate than most electrical interconnects and require specialized tooling and inspection.
• Optical assemblies are sensitive to dust, fingerprints, films and scratches, so they must be built and handled in clean environments; contamination control, coating quality, and careful packaging add cost.
• Reliability requirements (lifetime burn-in, thermal/vibration cycling, and calibration) introduce test time and scrap risk, which increase unit cost at low volumes.
• Because production volumes are modest, many lasers and photonic instruments (e.g., optical spectrum analyzers) are built with significant manual labor. Capital-intensive, highly automated production lines, as are common in automotive or semiconductor electronics, are hard to justify until volumes rise, yet volumes will not rise until costs fall.
• Even though total laser shipments are large, demand is fragmented across many models and operating regimes. Applications require different wavelengths, average powers, pulse energy, pulse duration, and repetition rates — often spanning orders of magnitude — so a single platform rarely covers all needs. This diversity limits standardization and economies of scale.

The more effective solutions are found for those problems, the better are the chances for further economic growth of the photonic sector.

Paths out of the cost trap include platform standardization, automated active alignment, wafer-level testing, and greater use of photonic integrated circuits. For example, VECSELs can displace some bulk solid-state lasers for continuous-wave operation, and silicon photonics — especially when co-packaged with electronics — can meet mass-market cost targets in information-technology links.

Integrated photonics has been recognized as an essential route for effective cost cutting. Combining lasers, modulators, filters, and detectors on common platforms (silicon, silicon nitride, indium phosphide, lithium-niobate-on-insulator) promises lower cost, size, weight, and power for mass markets, but it is not easy to realize all required features on one platform, or to build hybrid devices combining platforms. It is yet to be seen which platforms will eventually prevail in certain application areas. Co-integration with electronics and advanced packaging (chiplets, 2.5D/3D stacking) is another key enabler.

Required Investment Capital

A major early hurdle is the capital intensity of development: cleanrooms, precision metrology, coating tools, and pilot assembly lines must be funded before volume exists. In regulated markets (medical, aerospace), formal verification, reliability testing, and certification further extend timelines. Because the path from initial investment to revenue can span years and include technical surprises, raising capital is challenging — both to craft a realistic plan and to communicate it to non-specialist investors.

Large companies sometimes cross-subsidize photonics programs from established product lines. Elsewhere, external investors back startups, seeking large returns if the technology scales. Using university facilities, public grants and consortia can de-risk early stages (shared tools, pilot lines). Despite growing investor familiarity with photonics, risks remain for everyone involved — including technologists who may face substantial capital dilution if additional rounds are required.

Standards and Interoperability

Mature markets benefit from clear interface and reliability standards. In this respect, photonics is by far not as mature as electronics. Continued progress in optical module, fiber, and free-space communication standards lowers integration risk and speeds adoption. In some niche markets, such as active fibers, progress is slower (for example, concerning comprehensive fiber characterization), since suppliers hesitate to invest sufficiently.

Reliability and Ruggedization

Markets such as automotive, aerospace, and medical require long lifetimes and strict qualification. Advances in micro-optics, athermal design and contamination control, for example, expand where photonics can be deployed. In various fields, such developments are still quite incomplete.

Software and Data Ecosystems

Many applications — machine vision, spectroscopy, remote sensing — create value only when paired with robust calibration, algorithms, and data pipelines. Integration with artificial-intelligence workflows is increasingly decisive.

Limited Niche Markets

Only a subset of photonics targets true mass markets (for example, smartphone components or long-haul optical fiber communications). Many other applications address specialized verticals: surgical lasers, advanced microscopy, scientific instrumentation, or space payloads. A new modality for laser eye surgery or medical imaging, for instance, might reach only a few thousand clinics worldwide over several years. To be viable with small production runs, businesses need healthy margins, disciplined configuration control (to limit variant sprawl), and recurring revenue from consumables, calibration, and service contracts. Low volumes also limit the use of efficient mass-fabrication techniques.

Nonetheless, serving these niches can work well, with substantial rewards for the initiators and investors, if such products deliver outsized societal value (better outcomes, new science) and create durable companies — especially when they establish a reputation for reliability, training, and lifecycle support.

Government Support for Photonics

Governments increasingly recognize photonics as an enabling, cross-cutting technology, which should be properly funded to secure enormous potentials, mainly for future economic development, but also for problem solving. Therefore, governments fund photonics through dedicated partnerships, mission programs, and shared infrastructure:

• European Union (Horizon Europe “Photonics Partnership”). Under Horizon Europe (2021–2027), the Photonics Partnership — coordinated with the industry platform Photonics21 — sets a strategic research and innovation agenda and co-funds calls aimed at keeping European industry competitive across communications, manufacturing, health, sensing, and quantum technology. The EU also backs PhotonHub Europe, a “one-stop shop” that helps companies (especially SMEs) prototype and scale photonics solutions. Recent EU semiconductor policy complements this with investments in photonic chips and pilot lines under the “Chips Joint Undertaking”.
• United States (policy, institutes, and CHIPS-era programs). The National Photonics Initiative (NPI) continues to coordinate community advocacy across defense, health, energy, and communications. On the manufacturing side, AIM Photonics (a Manufacturing USA institute) provides multi-project wafer runs, PDKs, and packaging/test; recent calls and NSF notices underscore ongoing federal support for integrated photonics R&D and workforce training. CHIPS-era funding is enabling new packaging and photonics capacity.
• Note that as of August 2025, the administration wants to implement dramatic cuts on federal science budgets, which would substantially affect photonics among many other fields. It remains to be seen to which extent Congress, which should in principle have the spending power, will limit those cuts.
• Japan (Moonshot & Q-LEAP). Japan funds photonics-heavy programs through the government’s Moonshot R&D Program (with long-horizon goals in health, robotics, and information) and Q-LEAP (MEXT’s Quantum Leap Flagship), which spans quantum information and photonics technologies. These initiatives support university–industry consortia and international collaboration.
• China. China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) emphasizes innovation-driven development, strengthening national science and technology capabilities, and advancing strategic emerging industries. Priority areas include quantum information and other high-tech domains that intersect with photonics. Provincial programs and state research institutes add further support.
• Republic of Korea. The government-backed Korea Photonics Technology Institute (KOPTI) supports industrial R&D, SME technology transfer, and workforce development across LEDs, lasers, sensors, and precision optics.
• United Kingdom. UK policy links photonics to semiconductor and quantum priorities; the National Semiconductor Strategy highlights R&D strengths (including compound semiconductors) and aims to build resilient supply chains in areas that overlap with integrated photonics. Industry bodies and Catapult centres work with government to translate this into programs and procurement.
• Canada. Canada operates the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) as a public, open-access III–V foundry and has recently expanded national networks and training (e.g., FABrIC/CMC Microsystems, SiEPICfab) with new federal investments, strengthening domestic capability in lasers and photonic integrated circuits.

Nobel Prizes in Photonics

The importance of photonics is also underlined by the substantial number of Nobel Prizes awarded in recent years:

• 2023: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for generating attosecond light pulses that let researchers watch electron dynamics in matter (ultrafast laser science).
• 2023: Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Alexei I. Ekimov, Louis E. Brus and Moungi G. Bawendi for the discovery and development of quantum dots, now ubiquitous photonic emitters in displays, imaging, and sensing.
• 2022: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for experiments with entangled photons, establishing Bell-inequality violations and paving the way for quantum information science (core quantum optics/photonics).
• 2019: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz (apart from James Peebles) for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.
• 2018: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Arthur Ashkin for the invention of optical tweezers and to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for chirped-pulse amplification.
• 2017: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves” (→ use of laser interferometers for gravitational wave detection)
• 2014: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources” (→ light-emitting diodes)
• 2014: Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy” (→ fluorescence microscopy)
• 2012: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems” (→ quantum optics, laser cooling of atoms, optical frequency standards)
• 2010: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene” (which has particularly interesting implications in photonics)
• 2009: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Charles Kuen Kao “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication” (→ optical fibers, fiber optics, optical fiber communications) and to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit — the CCD sensor”
• 2005: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Roy J. Glauber “for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence” (→ coherence, quantum optics) and to John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch “for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision laser spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique” (→ frequency combs, optical frequency standards, frequency metrology)
• 2001: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl E. Wieman “for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates”
• 2000: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer “for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics” (→ laser diodes) (together with Jack S. Kilby “for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit”, which is outside photonics)
• 1997: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light” (→ laser cooling)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is photonics?

Photonics is the science and technology of light with an emphasis on practical applications. It involves generating, transmitting, modulating, detecting, and using light, which includes not only visible but also infrared and ultraviolet radiation.

How does photonics relate to electronics?

Photonics is analogous to electronics: just as electronics manipulates electrons, photonics generates, guides, modulates, and detects light (photons). Photonics often supplements electronics in the form of optoelectronics.

What are some core technologies in photonics?

Core photonic technologies include lasers and optical amplifiers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibers for light guidance, optical modulators for encoding information, and photodetectors for converting light back into electrical signals.

What are the most established application areas of photonics?

Photonics is well-established in telecommunications and data networking, solid-state lighting, industrial laser processing for manufacturing, imaging and machine vision, and optical metrology and sensing.

How is photonics used in medicine?

In medicine, the field known as biophotonics enables diagnostic tools like optical coherence tomography, surgical lasers for precise procedures, and analytical instruments for applications such as fluorescence imaging and flow cytometry.

What are the main challenges for the photonics market?

The main challenges include the high cost of precision manufacturing and alignment, and competition with established non-photonic technologies. Furthermore, the diversity of applications fragments the market, limiting standardization and economies of scale.

What is integrated photonics and why is it important?

Integrated photonics combines multiple functions like lasers, modulators, and detectors on a single chip. It is crucial for reducing the size, weight, power consumption, and cost of photonic systems, which enables their use in mass markets.

What is quantum photonics?

Quantum photonics is an emerging field that utilizes the quantum nature of light. Its potential applications include secure communications through quantum key distribution, quantum metrology, and the long-term development of photonic quantum computing.

Bibliography

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