Tool of the future

Editorial by Wenko Süptitz, Photonics Association Director of the SPECTARIS Industry Association

Photonics has become permanently established as a key technology for innovative high tech products in fields like materials processing, medical engineering, and optical data communications. Scarcely entering the public eye, this dynamic development in the photonics sector is the focus of the industry association SPECTARIS, which, supported by partners, is attempting to give this a greater public awareness. This year’s International Year of Light, which will also be supported in Adlershof with a wide range of activities, will provide the ideal platform for this. Together with OptecNet, we shall be taking this occasion to issue a book with infographics on photonics that is to illustrate the technical applications of light and its importance in all our everyday lives.

Some interesting applications of light as a “tool of the future” can also be seen in the field of spectrometry. The progress of miniaturisation is giving rise to a huge new potential for spectroscopy: Today, spectrometry drones can measure the irrigation levels of agricultural fields, spectrometers in the form of smartphone addons are used by large scale campaigns for measuring air pollution in the Netherlands, and soon customers can also activate combinations of smartphone and spectrometer to measure directly the ripeness of fruit in supermarkets.

The success of photonics is based on developments along the entire value adding chain – from engineering glasses and semiconductors to complete optical systems. Here, the great success achieved by Adlershof institutes and companies is specifically evident in the basic technologies as well. Some examples are nitride semiconductors developed for UV LEDs at the Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth (IKZ) and the associated applications in medicine and the life sciences.

Over the long term, we see encouraging prospects of growth for German photonics companies. This is supported by all economic indicators for 2015, that the course will lead back to a long term growth trend and the 44 billion euro target predicted by the photonics sector report “Branchenreport Photonik” will be reached by 2020.