What are the disadvantages of photonics when compared to electronics?

[Radium]

Hi:

What are the disadvantages of photonics when compared to electronics?


Thanks,

Radium

 

[John Fields]

Hi:

What are the disadvantages of photonics when compared to electronics?

 

[Radium]

Photonics can't be generated without electronics?

What causes this limitation?

 

[Don Bruder]

What causes this limitation?

Lack of enlightenment, grasshoppa...

 

[The little lost angel]

What causes this limitation?

Well, I guess you just have to think about how are you going to
generate/control the lights and optics, it should then be obvious it
won't work without some kind of electronics to start with no?

 

[Stef Mientki]

Hi:

What are the disadvantages of photonics when compared to electronics?


Thanks,

Radium

You have to find another newsgroup !
Stef

 

[Deefoo]

Well, I guess you just have to think about how are you going to
generate/control the lights and optics, it should then be obvious it
won't work without some kind of electronics to start with no?

Google definehotonics -> The technology of transmission, control, and
detection of light (photons). You don't _need_ electronics for that. You can
start a fire without electronics and you can put it out without electronics.

--DF

 

[The little lost angel]

Google definehotonics -> The technology of transmission, control, and
detection of light (photons).

Actually that's the first hit on Google but it's Intel's definition
"The technology of transmission, control, and detection of light
(photons). This is also known as fiber optics and optoelectronics.
www.intel.com/technology/silicon/sp/glossary.htm"

You don't _need_ electronics for that. You can
start a fire without electronics and you can put it out without electronics.

-_- If you want to take it THAT far out based on definitions from
google search...

According to google, the first meaningful hit is from ansers.com

Electronics n. The science and technology of electronic phenomena
Electronic adj. Of or relating to electrons.

You need electrical impulses to manipulate your body to conduct the
necessary physical actions to start the fire and to put it out. That
involves electrons travelling within your body, that means it's
electronic.

 

[Deefoo]

Actually that's the first hit on Google but it's Intel's definition
"The technology of transmission, control, and detection of light
(photons). This is also known as fiber optics and optoelectronics.
www.intel.com/technology/silicon/sp/glossary.htm"
electronics.

-_- If you want to take it THAT far out based on definitions from
google search...

According to google, the first meaningful hit is from ansers.com

Electronics n. The science and technology of electronic phenomena
Electronic adj. Of or relating to electrons.

You need electrical impulses to manipulate your body to conduct the
necessary physical actions to start the fire and to put it out. That
involves electrons travelling within your body, that means it's
electronic.

) though you don't need your body neither to start a fire nor put it out.

According to that interpretation _everything_ is electronics since electrons
are everywhere. I remember even reading about a theory that claimed that the
whole universe is actually just one electron going back and forth in time.

--DF

 

[Radium]

Google definehotonics -> The technology of transmission, control, and
detection of light (photons). You don't _need_ electronics for that. You can
start a fire without electronics and you can put it out without electronics.

--DF

From what you're saying, I am guessing that electronics are not

necessarily needed to power photonics *but* electricity is the most
*practical* source of energy for photonic components. Am I at least on
the right track? If not, please correct me.

 

[Mark L. Fergerson]

necessarily needed to power photonics *but* electricity is the most
*practical* source of energy for photonic components. Am I at least on
the right track? If not, please correct me.

When most of us see the word "photonics" we think LEDs/lasers and
photocells/photoresistors/phototransistors, meaning devices that
translate electronic signals into light impulses and back but not often
things that do something interesting to the signal stream like modulate
it while it's in photon form. Generally speaking the base technology is
electronics and the photonic bits are there to overcome some of the
limitations of electronics like enough bandwidth to get from one signal
processor to another and noise immunity. I suppose that at some point
most of the things we do with electronics (signal processing-wise) will
be done with photons, and the electronic part will be limited to the
power supply for the LEDs/lasers etc.


Mark L. Fergerson

 

[Radium]

When most of us see the word "photonics" we think LEDs/lasers and
photocells/photoresistors/phototransistors, meaning devices that
translate electronic signals into light impulses and back but not often
things that do something interesting to the signal stream like modulate
it while it's in photon form. Generally speaking the base technology is
electronics and the photonic bits are there to overcome some of the
limitations of electronics like enough bandwidth to get from one signal
processor to another and noise immunity.

I suppose that at some point
most of the things we do with electronics (signal processing-wise) will
be done with photons, and the electronic part will be limited to the
power supply for the LEDs/lasers etc.

Is there any *practical* source of power other than electricity that
could be used to energize these LEDs and lasers?

 

[Rich Grise]

Actually that's the first hit on Google but it's Intel's definition
"The technology of transmission, control, and detection of light
(photons). This is also known as fiber optics and optoelectronics.
www.intel.com/technology/silicon/sp/glossary.htm"

Apparently, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonics has the same idea:
"The science of photonics includes the emission, transmission,
amplification, detection, modulation, and switching of light. Photonic
devices include optoelectronic devices such as lasers and
photodetectors, as well as optical fiber, photonic crystals, planar
waveguides and other passive optical elements."

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Rich the Philosophizer]

) though you don't need your body neither to start a fire nor put it out.

According to that interpretation _everything_ is electronics since electrons
are everywhere. I remember even reading about a theory that claimed that the
whole universe is actually just one electron going back and forth in time.

Actually, it started as one primordial line of force, which by vibrating
called an electric current out of the void. The magnetic essence is The
Mother of Everything, and the electric current that was called forth
from the void came to be known as Spirit.

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Tim Williams]

According to that interpretation _everything_ is electronics since
electrons
are everywhere. I remember even reading about a theory that claimed that
the
whole universe is actually just one electron going back and forth in time.

Here's how I see it:

Physics is the One True Supreme Science.

Electronics is a subset of physics concerning primarily the movement of free
electrons through wires, semiconductors, vacuum, etc., and displacements
thereof (since a capacitor doesn't actually conduct current...it stores it).

Chemistry is a subset of physics concerning primarily the movement of
electrons between atoms and ions. All of chemistry deals entirely with the
electrons around the atoms; the nuclei only serve to provide positive charge
for the electrons to swarm around.

Electronics, of course, has all sorts of subsets. Optoelectronics for
instance deals with electromagnetic interaction, a fast-paced extension of
radioelectronics, generally due to quantum effects rather than circuit
wiring.

Chemisty, too, has all sorts of subsets, which if you want to get real hairy
about, includes organic chemistry, then biochemistry, then biology, then
naturally all the humanities follow from biology as a result of a species'
perceptions of its surroundings.

;_)

Tim

 

[Radium]

Well, I guess you just have to think about how are you going to
generate/control the lights and optics, it should then be obvious it
won't work without some kind of electronics to start with no?

I like to think about a digital computer than runs purely on lasers,
crystals, and prisms in which the wavelength of the lasers are 400nm
only, the lasing media are rare earth crystals. In addition, these
lasers are "pumped" solely by deuterium-tritium fusion.

Sadly, such a dream is something that even my great grandchilren will
most likely not experience.

 

[Mark L. Fergerson]

Mark L. Fergerson wrote:
....

Is there any *practical* source of power other than electricity that
could be used to energize these LEDs and lasers?

Lasers need to be "pumped" in order for them to emit light. This
means that the electrons in the lasing medium's atoms have to be shoved
up to a higher-than-normal energy level and allowed to fall back on
command, as it were. When they fall back they emit photons with energy
equal to the difference between the high and low levels. A given photon
will stimulate an "unfallen" electron in another atom to also fall, and
the resulting photon from the second atom is "in step" with the first
photon; the process repeats until all the electrons have given up their
photons (it's actually somewhat more complicated than that, but I'll
assume you know how to use Google).

There are only so many ways to manipulate electrons, and it depends
what you mean by "practical". Chemical lasers are well-known but hard to
control with the delicacy electrically-pumped lasers can achieve and are
somewhat awkward support-machinery-speaking. Lasers can be
optically-pumped as well (ruby and doped-glass lasers frinst), but that
just pushes the power source question one step back. There are also
free-electron lasers but they are basically electron tubes with magnet
arrays the beam passes over.

What are you getting at, and what do you think is "impractical" with
the way we do it now?


Mark L. Fergerson

 

[Deefoo]

I like to think about a digital computer than runs purely on lasers,
crystals, and prisms in which the wavelength of the lasers are 400nm
only, the lasing media are rare earth crystals. In addition, these
lasers are "pumped" solely by deuterium-tritium fusion.

Sadly, such a dream is something that even my great grandchilren will
most likely not experience.

IIRC They did build a water computer at a university in the Netherlands and
there is this project too:
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~paulo/courses/howmake/mlfabfinalproject.htm

--DF

 

[Tim Williams]

I like to think about a digital computer than runs purely on lasers,
crystals, and prisms in which the wavelength of the lasers are 400nm
only

Ecraf? Can't remember the model number. Was in some April issue of
Electronics Now a bunch of years ago, at any rate.

Tim

 

[Radium]

Lasers need to be "pumped" in order for them to emit light. This
means that the electrons in the lasing medium's atoms have to be shoved
up to a higher-than-normal energy level and allowed to fall back on
command, as it were. When they fall back they emit photons with energy
equal to the difference between the high and low levels. A given photon
will stimulate an "unfallen" electron in another atom to also fall, and
the resulting photon from the second atom is "in step" with the first
photon; the process repeats until all the electrons have given up their
photons (it's actually somewhat more complicated than that, but I'll
assume you know how to use Google).

There are only so many ways to manipulate electrons, and it depends
what you mean by "practical". Chemical lasers are well-known but hard to
control with the delicacy electrically-pumped lasers can achieve and are
somewhat awkward support-machinery-speaking. Lasers can be
optically-pumped as well (ruby and doped-glass lasers frinst), but that
just pushes the power source question one step back. There are also
free-electron lasers but they are basically electron tubes with magnet
arrays the beam passes over.

How about a laser that is pumped by deuterium-tritium fusion in which
the fusion is caused by the heat generated by the concentrated light of
another laser?

Laser # 1 emits a beam of light that -- when concentrated into a
narrower beam -- is intense enough to cause thermonuclear fusion of the
of the deuterium and tritium in laser #2. The deuterium-tritium fusion
in "pumps" the rare-crystal medium in laser #2 causing #2 to give out
light of its own.