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Summary
Optics and photonics technologies are central to modern life; indeed, UNESCO
has recently adopted a resolution declaring 2015 to be the International Year of
Light.1 These technologies enable the manufacture and inspection of all the inte-
grated circuits in every electronic device in use.2 They give us displays on our smart-
phones and computing devices, optical fiber that carries the information in the
Internet, advanced precision fabrication, and medical diagnostics tools. Optics and
photonics technology offers the potential for even greater societal mpact over the
i
next few decades. Solar power generation and new efficient lighting, for example,
could transform the energy landscape, and new optical capabilities will be essential
to supporting the continued exponential growth of the Internet. ptics and pho-
O
tonics technology development and applications have substantially increased across
the globe over the past several years. This is an encouraging trend for the world’s
economy and its people, while at the same time posing a challenge to U.S. leader-
ship in these areas. As described in this study conducted by the ational Research
N
Council’s (NRC’s) Committee on Harnessing Light: Capitalizing on Optical Science
Trends and Challenges for Future Research, it is critical that the United States take
advantage of these emerging optical technologies for creating new industries and
generating job growth.
1 or
F more information, see http://www.eps.org/news/106324/.
2 or
F example, photolithography is used to create most of the layers in integrated circuits, and
cameras inspect the quality afterward.
1
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2 Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for O u r N at i o n
Each chapter of the present report addresses the developments that have taken
place over the 15 years since the publication of the NRC report Harnessing Light:
Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century,3 technological opportunities
that have arisen since then, and the state of the art in the United States and abroad,
and recommendations are offered for how to maintain U.S. global leadership.
It is the committee’s hope that this study will help policy makers and leaders
decide on courses of action that can advance the economy of the United States,
provide visionary guidance and support for the future development of optics and
photonics technology and applications, and ensure a leadership role for the United
States in these areas. Although many unknowns exist in the course of pursuing
basic optical science and its transition to engineering and ultimately to products,
the rewards can be great. Researchers have achieved some dramatic advances. For
example, work in optics and photonics has now provided clocks so stable that they
will slip less than 1 second in more than 100 million years. Much more primitive
clocks enabled the incredibly useful Global Positioning System (GPS), and it re-
mains to be discovered how these new clock advances can be fully harnessed for
the benefit of society. In many ways, the current period might be analogous to the
dawn of the laser in 1960, when many of the transforming applications of that
extraordinary invention had not yet been contemplated. This is only one example
of technology innovation in optics and photonics that can lead to future major
applications.
GRAND CHALLENGE QUESTIONS TO FILL TECHNOLOGICAL GAPS
To fill identified technological gaps in pursuit of national needs and na-
tional competitiveness, the committee developed five overarching grand challenge
questions:
1. ow can the U.S. optics and photonics community invent technologies for
H
the next factor-of-100 cost-effective capacity increases in optical networks?
As mentioned in Chapter 3, it is not currently known how to achieve this goal,
but the world has experienced a factor-of-100 cost-effective capacity increase every
decade thus far, and user demand for this growth is anticipated to continue. Un-
fortunately, the mechanisms that have enabled the previous gains cannot sustain
further increases at that high rate, and so the world will either see increases in
capability stagnate or will have to invent new technologies.
3 National Research Council. 1998. Harnessing Light: Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st
Century. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
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Summary 3
2. ow can the U.S. optics and photonics community develop a seamless inte-
H
gration of photonics and electronics components as a mainstream platform
for low-cost fabrication and packaging of systems on a chip for communica-
tions, sensing, medical, energy, and defense applications?
In concert with meeting the fifth grand challenge, achieving this grand chal-
lenge would make it possible to stay on a Moore’s law-like path of exponential
performance growth. The seamless integration of optics and photonics at the
chip level has the potential to significantly increase speed and capacity for many
applications that currently use only electronics, or that integrate electronics and
photonics at a larger component level. Chip-level integration will reduce weight
and increase speed while reducing cost, thus opening up a large set of future pos-
sibilities as devices become further miniaturized.
3. ow can the U.S. military develop the required optical technologies to sup-
H
port platforms capable of wide-area surveillance, object identification and
improved image resolution, high-bandwidth free-space communication,
laser strike, and defense against missiles?
Optics and photonics technologies used synergistically for a laser strike fighter
or a high-altitude platform can provide comprehensive knowledge over an area, the
communications links to download that information, an ability to strike targets at
the speed of light, and the ability to robustly defend against missile attack. Clearly
this technological opportunity could act as a focal point for several of the areas in
optics and photonics (such as camera development, high-powered lasers, free-space
communication, and many more) in which the United States must be a leader in
order to maintain national security.
4. ow can U.S. energy stakeholders achieve cost parity across the nation’s
H
electric grid for solar power versus new fossil-fuel-powered electric plants
by the year 2020?
The impact on U.S. and world economies from being able to answer this
question would be substantial. Imagine what could be done with a renewable
energy source, with minimal environmental impact, that is more cost-effective
than nonrenewable alternatives. Although this is an ambitious goal, the commit-
tee poses it as a grand challenge question, something requiring an extra effort to
achieve. Today, it is not known how to achieve this cost parity with current solar
cell technologies.
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4 Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for O u r N at i o n
5. ow can the U.S. optics and photonics community develop optical sources
H
and imaging tools to support an order of magnitude or more of increased
resolution in manufacturing?
Meeting this grand challenge could facilitate a decrease in design rules for
lithography, as well as providing the ability to do closed-loop, automated manufac-
turing of optical elements in three dimensions. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) is a chal-
lenging technology to develop, but it is needed in order to meet future lithography
needs. The next step beyond EUV is to move to soft x rays. Also, the limitations
in three-dimensional resolution on laser sintering for three-dimensional manu-
facturing are based on the wavelength of the lasers used. Shorter wavelengths will
move the state of the art to allow more precise additive manufacturing that could
eventually lead to three-dimensional printing of optical elements.
The committee believes that these five grand challenges are the top priorities in
their respective application areas, and that because of their diverse nature, further
prioritization among them is not advisable. These grand challenge questions are
discussed in the main text immediately after the first key recommendation that
supports the challenge and are drawn from the findings and recommendations
throughout the report. They are discussed in the chapter in which they first appear,
and occasionally in succeeding chapters.
REPORT CONTENT AND KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
This report is divided into chapters based on application areas, with crosscut-
ting chapters addressing the impact of photonics on the national economy, ad-
vanced manufacturing, and strategic materials. Following an introductory Chapter
1, Chapter 2 discusses the impacts of photonics technologies on the U.S. economy.
Chapters 3 through 10 each cover a particular area of technological applica-
tion. As mentioned, the discussion of each application area typically begins with
a review of updates in the state of the science since the publication of the NRC’s
report Harnessing Light, as well as the technological opportunities that have arisen
from recent advances in and potential applications of optical science and engineer-
ing. Included are recommended actions for the development and maintenance of
global leadership in the photonics-driven industry, including both near-term and
long-range goals, likely participants, and responsible agents of change. As relevant
to their respective topics, the chapters assess the current state of optical science
and engineering in the United States and abroad, including trends in private and
public research, market needs, examples of translating progress in photonics inno-
vation into global competitive advantage (including activities by small businesses),
workforce needs, manufacturing infrastructure, and the impact of photonics on
the national economy.
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Summary 5
Following is a chapter-by-chapter overview of the content of Chapters 2
through 10, including the key recommendations from each.
Chapter 2: Impact of Photonics on the National Economy
Chapter 2 considers the economic impact of optics and photonics on the na-
tion and the world. This chapter uses a case study of lasers to discuss the conceptual
challenges of developing estimates of the economic impact of photonics innova-
tion. It also addresses the problems associated with using company-level data to
provide indicators of the economic significance of the “photonics sector” within
the U.S. economy. Additionally, this chapter discusses the ways in which the chang-
ing structure of the innovation process within photonics reflects broader shifts in
the sources of innovation within the U.S. economy. The chapter also considers the
results of recent experiments in public-private and inter-firm research and devel-
opment (R&D) collaboration in other high-technology areas for the photonics
sector. Possibly the most important finding of the committee in this area is related
to the pervasive nature of optics and photonics as an enabling technology.
K
ey Recommendation: The committee recommends that the federal govern-
ment develop an integrated initiative in photonics (similar in many respects
to the National Nanotechnology Initiative) that seeks to bring together aca-
demic, industrial, and government researchers, managers, and policy makers to
develop a more integrated approach to managing industrial and government
photonics R&D spending and related investments.
This recommendation is based on the committee’s judgment that the photonics
field is experiencing rapid technical progress and rapidly expanding applications
that span a growing range of technologies, markets, and industries. Indeed, in spite
of the maturity of some of the constituent elements of photonics (e.g., optics),
the committee believes that the field as a whole is likely to experience a period of
growth in opportunities and applications that more nearly resembles what might
be expected of a vibrantly young technology. But the sheer breadth of these ap-
plications and technologies has impeded the formulation by both government
and industry of coherent strategies for technology development and deployment.
A national photonics initiative would identify critical technical priorities for
long-term federal R&D funding. In addition to offering a basis for coordinating
federal spending across agencies, such an initiative could provide matching funds
for industry-led research consortia (of users, producers, and material and equip-
ment suppliers) focused on specific applications, such as those described in Chap-
ter 3 of this report. In light of near-term pressures to limit the growth of or even
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6 Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for O u r N at i o n
reduce federal R&D spending, the committee believes that a coordinated initiative
in photonics is especially important.
The committee assesses as deplorable the state of data collection and analysis of
photonics R&D spending, photonics employment, and sales. The development of
better historical and current data collection and analysis is another task for which
a national photonics initiative is well suited.
K
ey Recommendation: The committee recommends that the proposed na-
tional photonics initiative spearhead a collaborative effort to improve the
collection and reporting of R&D and economic data on the optics and pho-
tonics sector, including the development of a set of North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) codes that cover photonics; the collection of
data on employment, output, and privately funded R&D in photonics; and the
reporting of federal photonics-related R&D investment for all federal agencies
and programs.
It is essential that an initiative such as the proposed national photonics initia-
tive be supported by coordinated measurement of the inputs and outputs in the
sector such that national policy in the area can be informed by the technical and
economic realities on the ground in the nation.
Chapter 3: Communications, Information Processing, and Data Storage
Chapter 3 considers communications, information processing, and data stor-
age. The Internet’s growth has fundamentally changed how business is done and
how people interact. Photonics has been a key enabler allowing this communica-
tion revolution to occur. The committee anticipates that this revolution will con-
tinue, with additional demands driving significant increases in bandwidth and an
even heavier reliance on the Internet. So far there has been a factor-of-100 increase
in capacity each decade. However, there exists a technology wall inhibiting achieve-
ment of the next factor-of-100 growth.
K
ey Recommendation: The U.S. government and private industry, in combi-
nation with academia, need to invent technologies for the next factor-of-100
cost-effective capacity increase in long-haul, metropolitan, and local-area opti-
cal networks.
The optics and photonics community needs to inform funding agencies, and
information and entertainment providers, about the looming roadblock that will
interfere with meeting the growing needs for network capacity and flexibility. There
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Summary 7
is a need to champion collaborative efforts, including consortia of companies, to
find new technology—transmission, amplification, and switching—to carry and
route at least another factor-of-100 capacity in information over the next 10 years.
K
ey Recommendation: The U.S. government, and specifically the Department
of Defense (DOD), should strive toward harmonizing optics with silicon-based
electronics to provide a new, readily accessible and usable, integrated electronics
and optics platform.
They should also support and sustain U.S. technology transition toward low-
cost, high-volume circuits and systems that utilize the best of optics and electronics
in order to enable integrated systems to seamlessly provide solutions in commu-
nications, information processing, biomedical, sensing, defense, and security ap-
plications. Government funding agencies, the Department of Defense, and possibly
a consortium of companies requiring these technologies should work together to
implement this recommendation. This technology is one approach to assist in
accomplishing the first key recommendation in Chapter 3 concerning the factor-
of-100 increase in Internet capability.
K
ey Recommendation: The U.S. government and private industry should
position the United States as a leader in the optical technology for the global
data center business.
Optical connections within and between data centers will be increasingly
important in allowing data centers to scale in capacity. The committee believes
that strong partnering between users, content providers, and network providers,
as well as between businesses, government, and university researchers, is needed
for ensuring that the necessary optical technology is generated, which will support
continued U.S. leadership in the data center business.
Chapter 4: Defense and National Security
In Chapter 4, the committee discusses defense and national security. It is be-
coming increasingly clear that sensor systems are the next “battleground” for domi-
nance in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Comprehensive knowledge
across an area will be a great defense advantage, along with the ability to commu-
nicate information at high bandwidths and from mobile platforms. Laser weapon
attack can provide a significant advantage to U.S. forces. Defense against missile
attacks, especially ballistic missiles, is another significant security need. Optical
systems can provide synergistic capability in all these areas.
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8 Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for O u r N at i o n
K
ey Recommendation: The U.S. defense and intelligence agencies should fund
the development of optical technologies to support future optical systems
capable of wide-area surveillance, exquisite long-range object identification,
high-bandwidth free-space laser communication, “speed-of-light” laser strike,
and defense against both missile seekers and ballistic missiles. Practical applica-
tion for these purposes would require the deployment of low-cost platforms
supporting long dwell times.
These combined functions will leverage the advances that have been made in
high-powered lasers, multi-function sensors, optical aperture scaling, and algo-
rithms that exploit new sensor capabilities, by bringing the developments together
synergistically. These areas have been pursued primarily as separate technical fields,
but it is recommended that they be pursued together to gain synergy. One method
of maintaining this coordination could include reviewing the coordination efforts
among agencies on a regular basis.
Chapter 5: Energy
Chapter 5 deals with optics and photonics in the energy area. Both the gen-
eration of energy and the efficient use of energy are discussed in terms of critical
national needs. Photonics can provide renewable solar energy, while solid-state
lighting can help reduce the overall need for energy used for lighting.
K
ey Recommendation: The Department of Energy (DOE) should develop a
plan for grid parity across the United States by 2020.
“Grid parity” is defined here as the situation in which any power source is no
more expensive to use than power from the electric grid. Solar power electric plants
should be as cheap, without subsidies, as alternatives. It is understood that this will
be more difficult in New England than in the southwestern United States, but the
DOE should strive for grid parity in both locations.
Even though significant progress is being made toward reducing the cost of
solar energy, it is important that the United States bring the cost of solar energy
down to the price of other current alternatives without subsidy and maintains a
significant U.S. role in developing and manufacturing solar energy alternatives.
There is a need not only for affordable renewable energy but also for creating jobs
in the United States. A focus in this area can contribute to both. Lowering the cost
of solar cell technology will involve both technology and manufacturing advances.
Solid-state lighting can also contribute to energy security in the United States.
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Summary 9
K
ey Recommendation: The DOE should strongly encourage the development
of highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for general-purpose lighting
and other applications.
For example, the DOE could move aggressively toward its 21st-century light-
bulb, with greater than 150 lm/W, a color rendering index greater than 90, and a
color temperature of approximately 2800 K. Since one major company has already
published results meeting the technical requirements for the 21st-century lightbulb,
the DOE should consider releasing this competition in 2012. Major progress is be-
ing made in solid-state lighting, which has such advantages over current lighting
alternatives as less wasted heat generation and fast turn-on time. The United States
needs to exploit the current expertise in solid-state lighting to bring this technology
to maturity and to market.
Chapter 6: Health and Medicine
Chapter 6 discusses the application of optics and photonics to health and
medicine. Photonics plays a major role in many health-related areas. Medical im-
aging, which is widely used and is still a rapidly developing area, is key to many
health-related needs, both for gaining understanding of the status of a patient and
for guiding and implementing corrective procedures. Lasers are used in various
corrective procedures in addition to those for the eye. There is still great potential
for further application of optics and photonics in medicine.
K
ey Recommendation: The U.S. optics and photonics community should
develop new instrumentation to allow simultaneous measurement of all
i
mmune-system cell types in a blood sample. Many health issues could be ad-
dressed by an improved knowledge of the immune system, which represents
one of the major areas requiring better understanding.
Key Recommendation: New approaches, or dramatic improvements in exist-
ing methods and instruments, should be developed by industry and academia
to increase the rate at which new pharmaceuticals can be safely developed
and proved effective. Developing these approaches will require investment
by the government and the private sector in optical methods integrated with
high-speed sample-handling robotics, methods for evaluating the molecular
makeup of microscopic samples, and increased sensitivity and specificity for
detecting antibodies, enzymes, and important cell phenotypes.
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10 Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for O u r N at i o n
Chapter 7: Advanced Manufacturing
Chapter 7 addresses the field of advanced manufacturing and the way in which
it relates to optics and photonics. Advanced manufacturing is critical for the eco-
nomic well-being of the United States. While there are issues concerning the ability
of the United States to compete successfully in high-volume, low-cost manufac-
turing, it is likely that the United States can continue to be a strong competitor in
lower-volume, high-end manufacturing. Additive manufacturing has the potential
to allow the production of parts near the end user no matter where the design is
done. Thus, if the end user is in the United States, it is there that the printing or
manufacturing would occur. Optical approaches, such as laser sintering, are very
important approaches to three-dimensional printing.
K
ey Recommendation: The United States should aggressively develop additive
manufacturing technology and implementation.
Current developments in the area of lower-volume, high-end manufacturing
include, for example, three-dimensional printing, also called additive manufactur-
ing. With continued improvements in the tolerance and surface finish, additive
manufacturing has the potential for substantial growth. The technology also has
the potential to allow three-dimensional printing near the end user no matter
where the design is done.
Key Recommendation: The U.S. government, in concert with industry and
academia, should develop soft x-ray light sources and imaging for lithography
and three-dimensional manufacturing.
Advances in table-top sources for soft x rays will have a profound impact on
lithography and optically based manufacturing. Therefore, investment in these
fields should increase to capture intellectual property and maintain a leadership
role for these applications.
Chapter 8: Advanced Photonic Measurements and Applications
Chapter 8 discusses sensing, imaging, and metrology in relation to optics and
photonics. Sensing, imaging, and metrology have made significant progress since
the publication of the NRC’s Harnessing Light in 1998.4 Notable developments in-
clude having at least one Nobel Prize awarded for developing dramatic increases in
4 National Research Council. 1998. Harnessing Light: Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st
Century. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
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Summary 11
the precision of time measurement.5 Single-photon detectors have been developed,
but at this time they are only available with a dead time after detection, not allowing
single-photon sensitivity for detecting all incoming photons. Extreme nonlinear
optics has made significant progress, providing the potential for soft x-ray sources
and imaging. Entangled photons and squeezed states are new areas for R&D in the
optics and photonics field, allowing sensing options never previously considered.
Key Recommendation: The United States should develop the technology for
generating light beams whose photonic structure has been prearranged to yield
better performance in applications than is possible with ordinary laser light.
Prearranged photonic structures in this context include generation of light with
specified quantum states in a given spatiotemporal region, such as squeezed states
with greater than 20-dB measured squeezing in one field quadrature, Fock states
of more than 10 photons, and states of one and only one photon or two and only
two entangled photons with greater than 99 percent probability. These capabilities
should be developed with the capacity to detect light with over 99 percent efficiency
and with photon-number resolution in various bands of the optical spectrum.
The developed devices should operate at room temperature and be compatible
with speeds prevalent in state-of-the-art sensing, imaging, and metrology systems.
U.S. funding agencies should give high priority to funding research and develop-
ment—at universities and in national laboratories where such research is carried
out—in this fundamental field to position the U.S. science and technology base at
the forefront of applications development in sensing, imaging, and metrology. It is
believed that this field, if successfully developed, can transfer significant technology
to products for decades to come.
Key Recommendation: Small U.S. companies should be encouraged and sup-
ported by the government to address market opportunities for applying re-
search advances to niche markets while exploiting high-volume consumer
components. These markets can lead to significant expansion of U.S.-based
jobs while capitalizing on U.S.-based research.
Chapter 9: Strategic Materials for Optics
Chapter 9 deals with strategic materials for optics. The main developments
in materials for optics and photonics are the emergence of metamaterials and the
5 For example, the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics. More information can be found at http://www.
nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2005/. Accessed August 2, 2012.
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12 Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for O u r N at i o n
realization of how vulnerable the United States is to the need for certain critical
materials. At this time, some of those materials are available only from China.
R
ecommendation: The U.S. R&D community should increase its leadership
role in the development of nanostructured materials with designable and
t
ailorable optical material properties, as well as process control for uniformity
of production of these materials.
Chapter 10: Displays
Chapter 10 addresses display technology. The major current display industry is
based on technologies invented primarily in the United States, but this industry’s
manufacturing operations are located mostly overseas. Labor costs were a con-
sideration, but other factors such as the availability of capital were significant in
creating this situation. However, the United States is still dominant in many of the
newer display technologies, and it still has an opportunity to maintain a presence
in those newer markets as they develop.
R
ecommendation: U.S. private companies and the Department of Defense
should ensure a leadership role by funding R&D related to new materials for
flexible, low-power, holographic and three-dimensional display technologies.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
In reviewing the technologies considered here, a number of potential future
opportunities have come to light that allow one to imagine changes to daily life:
for example, electronic imaging devices implantable in the eye which can restore
sight to the blind; cost-effective, laser-based, three-dimensional desktop printing
of many different types of objects; the generation, detection, and manipulation of
single photons in the same way as is done with single electrons, and doing it all on
a photonic integrated circuit; the use of optics as interconnects between integrated
circuit chips, with dramatic increases in power efficiency and speed; the unfurl-
ing of a flexible display on a smartphone or the watching of holographic images
at home; and the ability of mobile lasers to neutralize threats from afar with high
accuracy and speed. These are just a few interesting examples of potential changes
that can occur as a result of the enabling technologies considered in this study.
