Editing Photonics (section)

==History==
The word 'Photonics' is derived from the Greek word "phos" meaning light (which has genitive case "photos" and in compound words the root "photo-" is used); it appeared in the late 1960s to describe a research field whose goal was to use light to perform functions that traditionally fell within the typical domain of electronics, such as telecommunications, information processing, etc.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

An early instance of the word was in a December 1954 letter from [[John W. Campbell]] to [[Gotthard Gunther]]:<blockquote>Incidentally, I’ve decided to invent a new science — photonics. It bears the same relationship to Optics that electronics does to electrical engineering. Photonics, like electronics, will deal with the individual units; optics and EE deal with the group-phenomena! And note that you can do things with electronics that are impossible in electrical engineering!<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=John W. |title=The John W. Campbell Letters With Isaac Asimov and A.E. van Vogt, Volume II |publisher=AC Projects, Inc |year=1991 |isbn=9780931150197 |editor-last=Chapdelaine |editor-first=Perry A. |chapter=December 14, 1954}}</ref></blockquote>Photonics as a field began with the invention of the [[maser]] and [[laser]] in 1958 to 1960.<ref name="Yeh2012"/> Other developments followed: the [[laser diode]] in the 1970s, [[optical fiber]]s for transmitting information, and the [[optical amplifier|erbium-doped fiber amplifier]]. These inventions formed the basis for the telecommunications revolution of the late 20th century and provided the infrastructure for the [[Internet]].

Though coined earlier, the term photonics came into common use in the 1980s as fiber-optic data transmission was adopted by telecommunications network operators.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} At that time, the term was used widely at [[Bell Laboratories]].{{citation needed|date=August 2017}} Its use was confirmed when the [[IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society]] established an archival journal named [[Photonics Technology Letters]] at the end of the 1980s.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

During the period leading up to the [[dot-com crash]] circa 2001, photonics was a field focused largely on optical telecommunications. However, photonics covers a huge range of science and technology applications, including laser manufacturing, biological and chemical sensing, medical diagnostics and therapy, display technology, and [[optical computing]]. Further growth of photonics is likely if current [[silicon photonics]] developments are successful.<ref>Responsive Photonic Nanostructures: Smart Nanoscale Optical Materials, Editor: Yadong Yin  RSC Cambridge 2013 https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/ebook/978-1-84973-653-4</ref>