Physics & Astronomy

The term photonics was first developed as an outgrowth of the practical semiconductor light emitters. It is the science which belongs to physical science department which gives the idea of light (photon) generation, detection and manipulation through various processes like transmission, emission, signal processing, modulation, amplification, switching and sensing.

It is the study of phenomenon which takes place as the consequence of the changes in the optical properties of a material system in the presence of light. Nonlinearity is typically observed at high intensities (for example those which are generated by lasers). Nonlinear optics provides the key technologies which helps in providing radiation sources in various wavelength ranges from x-rays to terahertz. These are basically used in combination with laser technology.

Nonlinear optics comes under a nonlinear phenomenon in which the response of a material system to an applied optical field totally depends in a nonlinear manner on the strength of the optical field. In this case only lasers are capable of modifying the optical properties of a material system.