Fotonik

Fotonik, often called photonics in English, is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons, especially in the visible and near-infrared spectrum. It covers the design and use of devices that produce, transmit, manipulate, and sense light, as well as the materials and methods that enable these processes.

Key components include light sources such as lasers and light-emitting diodes, optical fibers and waveguides, modulators, detectors, and photonic integrated circuits. Photonics draws on optics, quantum optics, and materials science, including nonlinear and quantum effects, to realize functions such as switching, filtering, amplification, and sensing.

Common applications include fiber-optic communication networks, where light carries data; sensing and imaging such as optical coherence tomography and LIDAR; biomedical diagnostics; spectroscopy; environmental monitoring; and displays and imaging systems. Photonics also underpins emerging fields such as quantum information processing and integrated photonics for compact, low-power devices.

History and development: lasers in the 1960s spurred photonics; fiber optics matured in the 1970s–1980s; the 1990s saw photonic integrated circuits and silicon photonics; more recently, quantum photonics and nano-structured photonic materials have expanded capabilities.

Fotonik is a global research field with academic, industrial, and governmental activity aimed at increasing data capacity, sensing precision, and energy efficiency. It overlaps with electronics but focuses on light as the carrier and signal.