Optical Science

Optical Science has been at the forefront of in-numerous technological and scientific leaps, yet I sometimes wonder if it is accorded corresponding importance vis-a-vis traditional disciplines like mechanical, chemical engineering etc.
Optical instruments, looking light years away (telescope) or looking at cells (optical microscope) or more commercial ones like spectacles and binoculars, have created scientific disciplines.
General purpose lighting from lamps, enabled us humans to make progress at night. Which is now becoming cheaper and more efficient with LED's. An even more sophisticated light source, laser, is one of the most significant enablers of industry and medicine as well.
Why just history, a peek into future and it is abundantly clear that- use of solar energy must be more large scale and efficient. In that direction the research in the field of solar cells has produced remarkable results and is still marching ahead.

An even more humongous contribution has come from optical fibres, which are the physical backbone of the internet age. These fibres extend for thousands of kilometres under the surface to provide us almost seamless bandwidth and information all around the globe.

Optical Sciences have led to such revolutionary products and solutions which have transformed human life from light bulb to Hubble telescope, from IT revolution to solar cells and we have not even touched the subjects as cameras, movies, projectors, laser cutting in industry to laser guided weapons, DVD, blue-rays discs. In fact little would we know that the entire electronic industry (mobile phones, laptops etc.) owes its beginnings to a humble finding by an optical-material scientist that certain polymers change behaviour when exposed to UV light, this process is used in the electronic industry by the name of photo-lithography, one of the defining steps in electronic chip manufacturing!

In all of the above examples, in no way does it imply that optical science is above all, however, that it has not received similar attention as other so-called traditional disciplines of science and technology is troubling.

This is felt most during interaction with students undertaking PhD's and MSc. around the world. The most fundamental and almost unique challenge before an Optical Scientist/Engineer or Designer is to 'get-over-the-eye'. Our eyes, one of the most sophisticated optical systems in nature, provide vision and enable us to see. However, the limitations of the human eye are gigantic -
Scale - The human eye can only see from the scale of millimetres to kilometres, therefore we use binoculars, telescopes and microscopes.
Wavelength - The human eye can only process signals of the wavelength range 380nm (violet light) to 750nm (red light). Therefore we cannot see anything in the ultra violet range (less than 380nm) or infra-red (higher than 750nm).
The solar spectrum on the other hand is in the range 250nm to 2500nm. Thus we need to protect ourselves from UV and infra-red light, for example we use UV protective eye wear when we are in the sun.

Lets explore an even more fundamental aspect of optics. Optical Science is almost as vast and critical as all other sciences put together. Atoms are the building blocks of all matter. Even more fundamentally electrons are the fundamental building block of all atoms. The electronic behaviour and configurations determine all material properties, hardness, reactivity, colour ..everything.
Movement of electrons from their default positions often requires release or absorption of optical energy. This is where optics is born. If electrons is where all things material owe their existence then changes in electron is where all things optical come to life, for the past 200 years we have focussed our energy towards every aspect ground-state-electron induced and so little to most things electron-transition (optics) induced!

Given that there are no specific optical engineering departments in most science schools and technological universities there is still lots of room for improvements and advancements. One of the most significant hurdles is inter-disciplinary nature of optics, thus often lending itself accessible to senior students and researchers. But if that were sincerely the cause, the traditional disciplines would not  have become traditional. There is enough breadth and depth in optics to be taught at undergraduate level and at the advanced stage. We do though have a dearth of entrepreneurs from the optics field or perhaps even fewer pop-sci articles reporting their success. Our realization of our limitations, as in the case of the eye, may be a good beginning.

Some of the most interesting schools offering studies and research in optics are -
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, USA (http://www.optics.arizona.edu/)
Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, USA (http://www.optics.rochester.edu/)
European Masters Program (http://www.master-photonics.org/ )
Photonics Group, Helsinki (http://nano.tkk.fi/en/research_groups/photonics/)
In India, IIT Delhi offers M.Tech in Applied Optics (http://web.iitd.ac.in/~mtechao/)
International Institute of Photonics, Cochin, (http://www.photonics.cusat.edu/index.html)