1. What is Photonics?
Photonics is the use of light energy for a variety of purposes – it is the technology that deals with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilization of light energy.
Photons are replacing electrons in may applications, most notably in digital communications.

2. Applications for Photonics
“Imaging”
Digital photography
Medical imaging and surgical applications
Laser sensing
Surveillance and remote sensing (LANDSAT)
Astronomy
Opthalmology

3. Applications for Photonics
Digital communications
Optical fibre computer networks: “backbone” of internet is optical
“Free space” satellite-to-ground, ground-to-satellite
Communication between remote sites, such as mountain tops and valleys.

4. Applications for Photonics
Industrial applications
Robotic location sensing and vision
Precision machining
Integrated circuit manufacturing (photolithography)
Precision surface and deflection measurements
Gyroscopes for airplanes and other applications

5. Education in Photonics
Practicing photonics engineers of the future will be educated in both electrical engineering and optical physics.
Key topics you can expect to cover include:
Geometrical optics
Wave optics
Quantum mechanics
Signal processing
Optical design
Lasers
Detectors
Optical Systems
Fiber optics
Optical communications
Optical lab experiments
Signal processing
Imaging
Camera systems
Remote sensing
Computer networking

6. Careers in Photonics Who hires photonics engineers?
Corning
JDS Uniphase
Bell Telephone
Computer networking companies, such as CISCO
Intell
IBM
Big push for the future - getting optical comm to the “last mile” of the internet (huge potential market!).