fotonikára

Fotonikára, or photonics, is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons for information processing, sensing, and imaging. It covers how light can be produced, guided, modulated, and measured across visible and near-infrared wavelengths, and it spans physics, electrical engineering, materials science, and chemistry.

Core technologies include light sources (lasers, light-emitting diodes), transmitters and receivers (photodetectors, modulators), and guidance media (optical fibers, waveguides, photonic integrated circuits). Nonlinear, plasmonic, and quantum effects are exploited to develop new devices at micro- and nano-scales. Photonics also relies on optical components such as lenses, filters, and coatings, as well as measurement techniques like spectroscopy and interferometry.

Applications are diverse: high-speed telecommunications and data centers using fiber optics; sensing in medicine, environmental monitoring, and industrial automation; imaging, medical lasers, and optical coherence tomography; LiDAR for autonomous vehicles; lighting and display technologies; and research areas such as quantum photonics and integrated photonics for compact information processing.

Research and industry focus on increasing integration, particularly silicon photonics and photonic integrated circuits, improving efficiency and tolerance to fabrication, and reducing costs. Development areas include nonlinear and quantum optics, nanophotonics, and advanced materials. Education programs train engineers and scientists across multiple disciplines.

Fotonikára is characterized by rapid pace and cross-disciplinary collaboration, with ongoing efforts to scale networks, enhance sensing capabilities, and enable new computation paradigms through light-based technologies.