Photonics is the technology of generating, transporting and using light energy. The word is a combination of photon (a quantum of light, from the Greek word photos) and the word electron- that is, photonics is analogous to electronics, with light replacing electrons. (Optics, on the other hand, is usually used to describe the general science of light.)
Photonics is an enabling technology for applications in sensing, telecommunications, medical diagnosis and therapeutics, transportation, manufacturing, computing, imaging and defense. The explosion of photonics applications over the past 50 years has caused some to call this the “Photon Century”. For more information on photonics and its applications, see
Wikipedia page on photonics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonics
Laurin Publishing’s education site that includes a dictionary of photonics terms
https://www.photonics.com/EDU/
Video by SPIE, the international society for optics and
A Day Without Photonics: A Modern Horror Story
http://spie.org/education/education-outreach-resources/free-multimedia
