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Optical computing or photonic computing uses light waves produced by lasers or incoherent sources for data processing, data storage or data communication for computing.For decades, photons have shown promise to enable a higher bandwidth than the electrons used in conventional computers (see optical fibers).
Biophotonics can also be described as the "development and application of optical techniques, particularly imaging, to the study of biological molecules, cells and tissue". [2] One of the main benefits of using the optical techniques which make up biophotonics is that they preserve the integrity of the biological cells being examined. [3] [4]
The use of the human eye as a detector led to photometric units, weighted by the eye's response characteristic. Study of the chemical effects of ultraviolet radiation led to characterization by the total dose or actinometric units expressed in photons per second. [1] Many different units of measure are used for photometric measurements.
Optoelectronic devices are electrical-to-optical or optical-to-electrical transducers, or instruments that use such devices in their operation. [ 1 ] Electro-optics is often erroneously used as a synonym, but is a wider branch of physics that concerns all interactions between light and electric fields , regardless of whether they form part of ...
Laser science—i.e., research into principles, design and application of these devices—became an important field, and the quantum mechanics underlying the laser's principles was studied now with more emphasis on the properties of light [dubious – discuss], and the name quantum optics became customary.
Today, the pure science of optics is called optical science or optical physics to distinguish it from applied optical sciences, which are referred to as optical engineering. Prominent subfields of optical engineering include illumination engineering , photonics , and optoelectronics with practical applications like lens design , fabrication and ...
Photonic integrated circuits use photons (or particles of light) as opposed to electrons that are used by electronic integrated circuits. The major difference between the two is that a photonic integrated circuit provides functions for information signals imposed on optical wavelengths typically in the visible spectrum or near- infrared (850 ...
The first commercial digital camera, the Cromemco Cyclops in 1975, used a 32×32 MOS image sensor. It was a modified MOS dynamic RAM memory chip. [32] MOS image sensors are widely used in optical mouse technology. The first optical mouse, invented by Richard F. Lyon at Xerox in 1980, used a 5 μm NMOS integrated circuit sensor chip.