photonics

American  

[foh-ton-iks] / foʊˈtɒn ɪks /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. the study and technology of the use of light for the transmission of information.

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photonics British  

/ fəʊˈtɒnɪks /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) the study and design of devices and systems, such as optical fibres, that depend on the transmission, modulation, or amplification of streams of photons

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photonics Scientific  

/ fō-tŏn′ĭks /

1. The scientific study or application of electromagnetic energy whose basic unit is the photon, incorporating optics, laser technology, electrical engineering, materials science, and information storage and processing.

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Etymology

Origin of photonics

1950–55; photonic, -ics; perhaps on the model of electronics

Example Sentences

Mario Paniccia, chief executive of Anello Photonics, wants to turn bulky and expensive inertial navigation systems into microchips cheap and small enough to fit inside a phone.

From The Wall Street Journal

Ayar Labs is among a small group of companies working in the obscure field of silicon photonics, seeking to replace copper interconnections with fiber-optic ones, which allow data to zip back and forth between microchips using photons traveling at the speed of light, rather than electrons, which move more slowly and consume more energy.

From The Wall Street Journal

Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who is on Ayar Labs’ board of directors, said in an interview that he started a unit to research silicon photonics inside Intel 23 years ago.

From The Wall Street Journal

Lumentum and Coherent are leaders in silicon photonics, which involves using light to move data between chips rather than electricity.

From MarketWatch

Their findings appear in a review published in Nature Photonics, which examines the rapid advances in creating, controlling, and measuring structured quantum light.

From Science Daily