In August 2012, the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) pre-released a report describing the technological and economic impacts of photonics technology in the US and abroad.  I summarized the report in August 2012.  Shortly after the report circulated amongst the scientific community, an ad hoc committee was formed by the associated professional societies (OSA, SPIE, IEEE, APS, and LIA) and charged with disseminating the NAS report.

This committee has since taken on the role of launching a National Photonics Initiative (NPI), as recommended by the report.  In order to define the initiative, subcommittees representative of US industry and academia in the five major photonics dependent markets were formed.

• Communication,  information processing & data storage 
• Advanced manufacturing
• Defense and national security
• Health and medicine
• Energy

The subcommittee mission is to address the following.

1. Technological barriers (near/long term) and ways to address them
2. Regulatory barriers to competitiveness and possible solutions
3. How public and private investments can be coordinated and/or improved
4. Workforce needs in the near and long term

These subcommittees will meet in person at the official NAS report launch event in Washington, D.C. next Thursday (Feb 28th) to finalize their recommendations to the launch committee.  At that point, the recommendations will become an action plan to launch the NPI.  Additionally, our report will be released to the community in hopes of aligning the US regions tied to photonics industries to national concerns.

In Europe, in preparation to the Horizons 2020 research funding program, Photonics 21 emerged out of interested industry to make recommendations that are tied to economic indicators.  In a similar vein, the NPI subcommittees are largely industry driven so that a market “pull” perspective can be heard along with the research community’s technology “push” point of view.

Key members of the Obama Administration, US Congress, US funding agencies, as well as major industry players all want to be at the table already.  Even in a tumultuous legislative environment, there is confidence this project will continue to gain traction.

Today, the US National Academy of Sciences released a report (Optics & Photonics: Essential Technologies for Our Nation) that addresses technological developments that have taken place in recent years, economic opportunities that exist in these technologies, and recommendations for achieving US leadership in a field as ubiquitous as any other in the modern industrial landscape.  The committee’s previous report from 1998 spurred unification of more than 1,700 firms across Europe but fell on deaf ears within the US.  It is hoped that with 14 years of progress in the field to stand as evidence to the necessity of these technologies and a concerted effort by the associated professional societies (OSA, SPIE, IEEE, and APS), steps to capitalize on the opportunities available will be made.

The economic importance of this field cannot be overstated.  Breakthroughs in O&P have enabled modern electronics, precision manufacturing, and the high-capacity data networks that run the internet.  Representing trillion dollar industries, avenues toward energy independence, breakthroughs in medical care, and the safety of modern warfighters, light has led the way and will only continue.  What follows is a brief summary of the findings and recommendations of the NAS report intended to incite action from scientists, existing industry, investors, and government.

Optics-related Technological Foci:

Communications, Information Processing, and Data Storage
Building from existing market dominance, the US should position itself as a leader in data center and network technologies by achieving an integrated electronic and photonic platform to push toward a factor-of-100 data capacity increase.

Defense and National Security
To insure our national security, photonic technologies represent big opportunities in defining the future of military engagement.  The US must prioritize the development of platforms capable of wide-area surveillance, object identification, improved resolution, high-bandwidth free-space communications, and missile defense tactics.

Energy
Advances in photonic materials and technology research yield a multi-faceted boon to energy savings through solar energy conversion, solid state lighting, and energy efficient telecommunications.  The DOE should commit to achieving oil-solar grid parity by 2020, and launch a 21st century light bulb challenge.

Health and Medicine
We observe and measure our world with light from birth, and now technological advances in medical diagnostics as well as chemical production monitoring offers the potential for revolutionary medical treatments and streamlined pharmaceutical development processes.  Technologies for comprehensive immune system diagnostic tools and streamlined pharmaceutical development processes are the next step.

Advanced Manufacturing
New industries are blossoming in the arena of advanced – optics enabled – manufacturing with regard to high precision machining, lithography, high purity deposition, and additive manufacturing (3D printing).  Having lost much of the high-volume manufacturing industry overseas, the US should focus on low-volume, high-value production by developing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft x-ray sources and optics.

Advanced Photonic Measurement and Applications
In recent years, tremendous growth has occurred in our ability to measure the world around us and define standards in time and space.  It is imperative that the US continue to support research into techniques for advanced measurement, timing standards, and quantum-information potentials.

Strategic Materials for Optics
In order to achieve optical technologies that depend on rare materials or that are physically impossible with physical elements, a focus on the development of nanostructured materials that can be tailored from abundant materials will be crucial in coming years as global resources become scarce and market demand for shrinking device size continues.

Display
While the US dominates display technology innovation, the production industry has all but vanished from our shores.  We are presented with the opportunity of having a competency in solid state lighting and existing display technology and should take advantage of this toward future display needs.

Strategic Foci:

Workforce Development
As the technologies used in the workplace advance, the need to train the new generation of skilled laborers has become paramount.  From an economic point of view, despite national employment woes there is a quickly growing need for technicians in O&P companies, and from a national security point of view, the US military needs personnel educated in high-tech O&P technologies.

Research and Capital Investments
The technologies that have emerged from O&P research, especially in the area of advanced measurement, represent many high-value, low-demand opportunities that are best addressed by small and medium business ventures.  Additionally, these businesses have represented an increasingly dominant portion of non-Federally funded R&D.  Therefore, encouraging gap-funding opportunities to propel advanced tech out of the laboratory will be essential to the success of the modern economy.

Elemental Resources
As vast and geographically diverse a nation we may be, there remain international handcuffs in the form of elemental natural resources.  The US must remain mindful of these dependencies and foster sustainable trade practices.

The National Photonics Initiative
The grandest recommendation from the NAS report calls for the creation of a federal crosscutting initiative intended to maintain priorities toward the development of near and long term technological research challenges and education across the application space of optics and photonics.  This initiative, like the National Nanotechnology Initiative, would be charged with allocating research dollars from the multitude of existing federal research budgets for O&P, monitoring the associated industrial landscapes, and ensuring sustainable progress through the education of future technicians and scientists.  Without this buy-in, it is feared that our many growing national competitors will overtake us in this key field leaving our future in the hands of other nations.