Category:Lasers, lighting & electrooptics

Background

This Electronics Research Center study of the molecular properties of liquids was conducted using laser technology.

Lighting has been one of the earliest applications of electric power. The natural properties of electric lighting are visible in lightning, and these ideas were utilized in the early 19th century for arc lighting, a system which creates a spark between two conductors, producing a great deal of light. Sir Humphrey Davy made a famous demonstration of arc lighting in 1809, and arc lighting would be implemented in larger scales with the advent of the generator. The first practical installation was at the South Foreland lighthouse in England in 1858, and the Jablochkoff candle would be invented in 1870. Arc lighting would eventually be replaced by incandescent bulbs, invented by Thomas Edison in 1879.

Pages in this category deal with all aspects of lighting and optics, which includes the laser, or Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation, a focused beam of light which has many applications in modern technology. Fiber optics, media which transmit laser light along glass fibers, have played a huge part in today's communication industry, and are vital to the functionality of the internet.

The IEEE's interest in these areas lies in the IEEE Photonics Society (formerly the Lasers & Electro-Optics Society), which publishes several journals including the IEEE Photonics Journal, Photonics Technology Letters, Journal of Quantum Electronics, Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, IEEE/OSA J. of Display Technology, and IEEE/OSA Journal of Optical Communications and Networking.

Subcategories

• Charge-coupled image sensors - or CCD sensors, a sensor which converts an optical image into an electronic signal by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device
• Electric lighting - creating lighting using electric charges
• Electroluminescent devices - devices that contain materials that illuminate in response to an electric current or electric field
• Electrooptic devices - Devices which modify optics by use of an electric field such as electrochromic devices and electrooptic deflectors
• Electrooptic effects - Effects observed when using electrooptic devices such as electrochromism, Kerr effect, and optical bistability
• Lasers - An acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation, lasers are a focused beam which has many applications in today's world
• Fluorescent lighting - lighting that uses the rarefied gases in a tube to excite fluorescent materials that coat the tube
• Gas lighting - using a gas to produce light through combustion
• Incandescent lighting - lighting the comes from heating a filament wire to a high temperature until it glows
• Light emitting diodes - a light source that comes from semiconductors that release energy in the form of photons
• Nonlinear optics - The field of optics which describes how light interacts with a non-linear medium
• Optical devices - Devices used in optics such as lenses, mirrors, and light deflectors
• Optics - Topics that deal with optics as a whole, including color, ray tracing and luminescence
• Optoelectronic devices - Devices which detect and control light such as charge-coupled image sensors, LED lamps, and superconducting photodetectors
• Photonics - The science of light's behavior, acting neither as a particle nor a wave