About Photonics NL
PhotonicsNL is the unique portal for Photonics in the Netherlands. Photonics is worldwide being recognized as a key enabling technology for the 21st century and especially in Europe by the European Commission but also in the Netherlands by the High Tech Topsector.
IOP Photonic Devices
Stimulating Innovation through Science
The Dutch government aims to make the research world more accessible to industry and to improve and intensify contacts between the two. Innovation-oriented research programmes (IOP) subsidize innovation-oriented technology research projects within specific themes at universities, (non-profit) research institutes and companies which fulfil the long-term needs of the industry in the Netherlands. One such theme is photonic devices.
Rich history in photonics
The Netherlands has a long, rich tradition in the field of optics and photonics starting in 1690 with Christiaan Huygens and his Traité de La Lumière. Huygens was one of the Netherlands’ greatest physicists, a telescope(device) builder and also the founder of the theory of the propagation of light. The first ‘optical device’ builder was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who constructed the first microscopes.
The Dutch physicist Frits Zernike received the Nobel Prize for his theory of the propagation of light and its application in the phase-contrast microscope. Furthermore, in the last century Delft University of Technology pioneered the field of electron optics, resulting in the development of the electron microscope. Also today, a lot of high-quality research is being carried out into optics and photonics in the Netherlands.
IOP Photonic Devices
The aim of the IOP programme Photonic Devices is to intensify the interaction between universities, (non-profit) research institutes and companies in the Netherlands by giving an extra impulse to research within this theme and by actively involving the industry in the execution. Collaboration between universities, (non-profit) research institutes and companies leads to new networks and reinforcement of existing networks. Photonic devices and modern applications of light attract much scientific and commercial interest. They are important enabling technologies for numerous scientific and industrial areas. The IOP Photonic Devices programme started in January 2006 and concentrated on the development of advanced light sources and detection systems, and the application of photonic devices in health and medicine. The programme has ended in 2015.
An overview of the projects can be found here.
Photonics Integration played an important role as key enabling technology in all the project. At the end of the project a special brochure has been made wich gives an impressive overview of the several applications of this disrupteve technology. This brochure can be found here.
