In September I attended two conferences that re-emphasized the great range of applications and industries benefiting from photonics. The first, Strategies in Biophotonics, in Boston, was focused on developing and commercializing light-based biomedical devices, and was presented by our colleagues at BioOptics World. The second, Lasers for Manufacturing Event in Schaumburg, IL, was presented by the Laser Institute of America, with our colleagues at Industrial Laser Solutions as the main media partner.
Without the common thread of lasers and optics, it would be hard to image events at further extremes. What they had in common was that both events contained excellent market and technical content about light-based science and technology, attracted the leading companies to exhibit, and drew attendees seeking both information and tools for their very different applications.
Understanding and quantifying this diversity has always been difficult. To help policy makers and members of the community understand the scope and great impact of photonics, SPIE is undertaking an extensive analysis that so far shows the global photonics components industry has annual revenues of $156 billion. The study includes data from 2,750 companies in 46 countries producing photonics materials, LEDs, lasers, detectors, image sensors, lenses, prisms, optical filters, gratings, fiber optics, and other components. These companies provide 700,000 jobs.
Articles in this issue further illustrate the diversity and impact of photonics, from our cover story on ultranarrow-linewidth semiconductor lasers that can improve interferometric measurement and lidar (see page 27), to a compact industrial laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system for aluminum recycling (see page 50) and a machine-vision-based 3D imaging system (see page 48). Photonics is a complex world of science and technology, which indeed makes sense since it is so intrinsic to the world around us.
