fotoniika

Fotoniika, the Estonian term for photonics, is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons. It studies light as a carrier of information and energy and includes devices and systems that emit, guide, modulate, transmit, detect, and sense light across a broad range of wavelengths from infrared to ultraviolet.

The field encompasses optical engineering, laser technology, optoelectronics, integrated photonics, fiber optics, imaging, sensing, and quantum photonics. Typical components include light sources (lasers, LEDs), detectors (photodiodes, photomultiplier tubes), waveguides, optical fibers, modulators, couplers, and optical amplifiers. Integrated photonics aims to realize complex circuits on silicon or other semiconductor platforms.

Historically, fotoniika emerged with the invention of the laser in the 1960s and progressed with advances in fiber-optic communication, imaging, and materials science. Recent decades have emphasized silicon and heterogeneous photonics, nanophotonics, and quantum photonics for scalable information processing.

Applications span telecommunications, data centers, medical devices (imaging, laser surgery, optical coherence tomography), sensing and metrology, autonomous vehicles (LiDAR), environmental monitoring, and consumer electronics. In research, fotoniika underpins quantum communication, quantum computing, and advanced spectroscopy.

Key subfields include nonlinear optics, plasmonics, and quantum photonics. Ongoing challenges include integrating photonic components on chips, reducing losses, managing heat, and creating cost-effective manufacturing for large-scale deployment.