Editing Photonics (section)

===Modern optics===
Photonics is related to [[quantum optics]], [[optomechanics]], [[electro-optics]], [[optoelectronics]] and [[quantum electronics]]. However, each area has slightly different connotations by scientific and government communities and in the marketplace. Quantum optics often connotes fundamental research, whereas photonics is used to connote applied research and development.

The term ''photonics'' more specifically connotes:
* The particle properties of light,
* The potential of creating signal processing device technologies using photons,
* The practical application of optics, and
* An analogy to [[electronics]].

The term [[optoelectronics]] connotes devices or circuits that comprise both electrical and optical functions, i.e., a thin-film semiconductor device. The term [[electro-optics]] came into earlier use and specifically encompasses nonlinear electrical-optical interactions applied, e.g., as bulk crystal modulators such as the [[Pockels cell]], but also includes advanced imaging sensors.

An important aspect in the modern definition of Photonics is that there is not necessarily a widespread agreement in the perception of the field boundaries. Following a source on optics.org,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Optics.org |title=Optics or photonics: what's in a name? |url=https://optics.org/article/32348 |publisher=Optics.org}}</ref> the response of a query from the publisher of Journal of Optics: A Pure and Applied Physics to the editorial board regarding streamlining the name of the journal reported significant differences in the way the terms "optics" and "photonics" describe the subject area, with some description proposing that "photonics embraces optics". In practice, as the field evolves, evidences that "modern optics" and Photonics are often used interchangeably are very diffused and absorbed in the scientific jargon.