Background

To give an idea of scale, it is estimated that more than 3,000 university departments and institutes around the world are currently involved in photonics research. At the same time, optics-related societies in the US, Europe and Asia now have a combined membership of around 250,000 scientists and engineers. In 2005, more than 68,000 research papers were published that related to photonics
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Today, photonics is not only a Nobel Prize-winning science but also a crucial technology behind modern devices in the home, research lab and factory. For example, the laser underpins applications such as optical fibre communication, data storage, microelectronics fabrication and eye surgery. The LED is rapidly making the light-bulb redundant and the CCD image sensor is at the heart of scientific and consumer digital cameras.

Photonics disciplines
The photonics science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fibre optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and information processing.

Photonics covers many areas of science and engineering like: High speed optic fibre telecommunications and data communications; Lasers; Fibres, cables and other components; New materials, like organic materials; Optical devices; Integrated optics; Systems design, integration; Research and Development; Industrial Manufacturing; Systems development and installation; Applications using photonics devices.

Today, photonics is not only a Nobel Prize-winning science but also a crucial technology behind modern devices in the home, research lab and factory. For example, the laser underpins applications such as optical fibre communication, data storage, microelectronics fabrication and eye surgery. The LED is rapidly making the light-bulb redundant and the CCD image sensor is at the heart of scientific and consumer digital cameras.

A growing area is also bio photonics, where photonics technology is used to develop new procedures and techniques in biotechnology, microbiology, medicine, surgery and other life sciences, including veterinary medicine. Photonics has a growing reputation in solving clinical and research problems through advanced spectroscopy, lasers, microscopy and fibre optic imaging.

Nano photonics
Current information technology uses light to transmit, store, display and scan information. Photonic technology is thus intimately interwoven with information technology and will continue to be so into the foreseeable future.

In addition, light plays a crucial role in the fabrication of current microelectronic devices. Optical lithography is still used to define the patterns of microelectronic circuits. The evolution of optical lithography to meet the demands of ever-shrinking devices is vital to the future of computer technology.
The shrinking scale of information technology presents both new challenges and new opportunities for those engaged in optics and photonics research. The ongoing development of new techniques for fabricating nano electronic devices opens up the possibility of using these methods for making nano photonic devices. Devices that involve the interaction of light with features only tens or hundreds of nano meters in size.

Accurate modelling of the interaction of light with nanostructures is computationally demanding but will be essential if nano photonic science is ever to become nano photonic technology.

Photonics outlook for Europe
“Europe needs a common, unified approach to photonics research to achieve the economy of scale necessary to compete with the US and Asia, and properly address the markets of the 21st century” That's the conclusion of a new report drawn up by the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) and the Association of German Engineers (VDI).

The 20-page report, entitled "Photonics for the 21st century - a consolidated European photonics research initiative", provides a detailed analysis of the state of optics in the EU, clearly spelling out the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.  It has been drawn together from information and opinions gathered from 60 leaders of well-known firms and research establishments across Europe.

From reading the report it is clear that the economic importance of the photonics sector to Europe cannot be ignored. It states that, in 2003, photonics was responsible for 500,000 jobs, products in the value of €60 bn and 15,000 patents. If the sector is properly supported, the report claims that these figures will rise to 1.5 million jobs, €250 bn products and 45,000 patents by 2010.

The European photonics industry currently leads the world in two application areas: solid-state (LED) lighting and laser-assisted manufacturing. In the SSL, European companies such as Philips and Osram account for 30% of the world market, and the prospects for growth are huge.
High-brightness LEDs are expected to be used in automobiles in significant volumes from around 2008, that means that 60 million cars will be sold per year each containing 200 LEDs. so 12 billion LEDs per year.
But will Europe be able to compete with Asia when it comes to supplying such huge volumes in a cost-effective manner? According to Pearsall of Epic: Of course it does: Osram Opto Semiconductors has built an LED plant in Germany that is capable of churning out four billion LEDs per month.

It's not just lighting where Europe has a critical strength - in the use of lasers as manufacturing tools, European firms such dominate the market, meaning that 50% of world sales of laser-manufacturing equipment go to Europe.  Another booming sector is European machine vision. This has grown at 10-30% per year in the past decade and looks set to continue to rise in the foreseeable future.

In addition, the market for next-generation displays based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is forecast to grow at 40% per year over the next five years. In this area, Merck, CibaSc, Cambridge Display Technology, OTB, Aixtron and numerous other European firms are leading the development of materials and the fabrication processes that are needed.

Action needed

In all of these aforementioned areas, industry leaders are now convinced that action is needed to help to ensure that Europe fights off the strong competition from abroad in the future. But also positions in the other areas of photonics should but secured such as in life sciences and healthcare, and in safety and security, though a concerted program of action. "Only a coordinated approach can make use of the economies of scale necessary to sustain economic production in Europe and reach the critical mass of investment needed to address the big markets of the 21st century," states the report of the recently establish Photonics21 Platform [ The report "Photonics for the 21st century" can be downloaded from EPIC's website at www.epic-assoc.com].

Recommendations for Europe from the "Photonics for the 21st century”

As a first step the partners in the Photonics21 Platform want to persuade the European Commission (EC) to create and fund a dedicated photonics technology area within its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).  

Part of the problem seems to be that European research is fragmented and dispersed. According to the report, the photonics industry in Europe has become complex and multidisciplinary after just a few decades of existence, and about two-thirds of the photonics workforce is employed by SMEs.
People who have an interest in photonics as researchers and developers or manufacturers have to unify. European photonics appears to be a very innovative sector but made up of a lot of SMEs and has never known a unified approach