Introduction to Photonics

Introduction to Photonics and its applications:

In simple words, the physical science of light waves is known as Photonics. It studies the science behind the generation, manipulation, and detection of light. Light comes with a dual nature of particle as well as wave. That is to say, light has the characteristics of both a continuous electromagnetic wave and a particle (photon). The light behaves on what nature of the two depends on the kind of interaction being observed. For example, the bending of the light through lens diffraction at the edge of an aperture reflects its wave nature. Light being created or absorbed by a solid-state device such as a laser diode or charge-coupled device (CCD) detector is demonstrating the particle nature of the light. You can visit website of pfg optics to understand the spherical lens and flat optics.

In the 1960s, when the invention of the laser happened, the use of the term “photonics” became very popular, and later on, the laser diode was invented. It was originally intended to describe a field where the goal was to use light to accomplish tasks traditionally using electronics, thus the name. And as the invention of fiber optic communication happened, the use of photonics word became more popular.

Today, photonics refers to the creation, manipulation, and detection of light in the service of practical applications where the particle nature of light is important.

Optics and photonics:

Optics is basically the physics in which we study a wide range of topics related to the study of light. Optics includes subfields such as geometric optics, physical optics, and quantum optics. Photonics comes under the optics discipline.

Geometrical optics which are also considered classical optics are primarily related to the manipulation of light with the help of devices such as mirrors, lenses, and prisms. In geometrical optics, light is modulated on the basis of the ray approximation. In the ray approximation, the light wavefront is approximated as a collection of rays, each perpendicular to the light's wavefront and representing the energy flow through the system.

Physical optics is basically the analysis of characteristics of light where wave nature is predominant. The ray approximation is not valid in physical optics because interference and diffraction effects have to be taken into account. Physical optics does not include effects that cause the particle nature of light. The production of holographic images will be a typical application of physical optics.