Photonic Instrumentation

Optical or photonic instrumentation (or Test and Measurement, T&M) is a huge catch-all containing many products, based on multiple technologies and intended for various applications and needs. That is, everything related to measuring, harnessing, generating, routing or processing light...or photons.

Let's say that Optics is a branch of Mother Goddess Physics that studies light (generation, death, interactions,...) and Photonics is the branch of Optics dedicated to the study of light as a corpuscular phenomenon, in its form of light particles: photons. As you can see, this lends itself to lively discussions over several beers.

In the light of the last paragraph and if we are very rigorous, we will say that both optical instrumentation and photonics fit here. Period.

Among the instrumentation we can make two main groups:
- meters and component devices to measure physical quantities of other devices (lasers, light sources, etc.)
- devices that use light to perform a function or add value to an optical device or system, even if they are not optical devices themselves.

Our relevant subcategories within this optical instrumentation are:
- spectral measurement: spectrometers, monochromators, Raman and LIBS spectrometers and systems, application-specific spectroscopy systems, spectral sensors, etc,...
- laser power and energy measurement: sensors and meters for laboratory, components for OEM integration, handheld meters and probes for maintenance technicians
- laser beam profile analysis: imaging analyzer profilometers

Any instrument capable of detecting light is likely to appear in this section, such as colorimeters and photometers (spot or 2D).

The growing laser and light-based metrology and inspection also have a place here.

Some of our featured suppliers are:
- Avenir Photonics: miniature spectrometers for industrial and laboratory implementation
- LaserPoint: laser power and energy measurement.