How to become Photonics Engineer in 2024

Photonics Engineer Design technologies specializing in light information or light energy, such as laser or fiber optics technology.

Photonics Engineer is Also Know as

In different settings, Photonics Engineer is titled as

  • Algorithm Developer
  • Laser Engineer
  • Optical Design Engineer
  • Optical Engineer
  • Optical Specialist
  • Optical Systems Engineer
  • Optoelectronics Engineer
  • Research and Development Engineer (R and D Engineer)
  • Research Engineer

Education and Training of Photonics Engineer

Photonics Engineer is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Photonics Engineer

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Photonics Engineer

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Photonics Engineer

Training Required for Photonics Engineer

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Photonics Engineer in different industries are

What Do Photonics Engineer do?

  • Select, purchase, set up, operate, or troubleshoot state-of-the-art laser cutting equipment.
  • Analyze, fabricate, or test fiber-optic links.
  • Design electro-optical sensing or imaging systems.
  • Design laser machining equipment for purposes such as high-speed ablation.
  • Develop laser-processed designs, such as laser-cut medical devices.
  • Determine commercial, industrial, scientific, or other uses for electro-optical applications or devices.
  • Conduct research on new photonics technologies.
  • Design, integrate, or test photonics systems or components.
  • Analyze system performance or operational requirements.
  • Conduct testing to determine functionality or optimization or to establish limits of photonics systems or components.
  • Design gas lasers, solid state lasers, infrared, or other light emitting or light sensitive devices.
  • Determine applications of photonics appropriate to meet product objectives or features.
  • Develop or test photonic prototypes or models.
  • Develop optical or imaging systems, such as optical imaging products, optical components, image processes, signal process technologies, or optical systems.
  • Assist in the transition of photonic prototypes to production.
  • Create or maintain photonic design histories.
  • Oversee or provide expertise on manufacturing, assembly, or fabrication processes.
  • Read current literature, talk with colleagues, continue education, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in the field.
  • Train operators, engineers, or other personnel.
  • Design or develop new crystals for photonics applications.
  • Design or redesign optical fibers to minimize energy loss.
  • Design photonics products, such as light sources, displays, or photovoltaics, to achieve increased energy efficiency.
  • Design solar energy photonics or other materials or devices to generate energy.
  • Develop photonics sensing or manufacturing technologies to improve the efficiency of manufacturing or related processes.
  • Write reports or proposals related to photonics research or development projects.
  • Document photonics system or component design processes, including objectives, issues, or outcomes.

Qualities of Good Photonics Engineer

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.

Tools Used by Photonics Engineer

  • Argon-ion lasers
  • Atomic force microscopes AFM
  • Autocorrelators
  • Bench refractometers
  • Biosafety cabinets
  • Chemical hoods
  • Chemical mechanical polishing CMP systems
  • Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering CARS microscopes
  • Confocal fluorescence microscopes
  • Contact lithography systems
  • Cryostats
  • Current monitors
  • Deconvolution fluorescence microscopes
  • Digital cameras
  • Digital panel meters
  • Digital storage oscilloscopes DSO
  • Electron beam lithography systems
  • Extreme ultraviolet lasers
  • Femtosecond lasers
  • Flow meters
  • Fluorescence lifetime spectrometers
  • Infrared viewers
  • Interferometers
  • Isolation glove boxes
  • Laser beam profilers
  • Laser Doppler vibrometers
  • Laser facsimile machines
  • Laser printers
  • Laser tweezers
  • Line scan cameras
  • Microprobe stations
  • Near field scanning optical microscopes NSOM
  • Near infrared cameras
  • Nitrogen lasers
  • Optical choppers
  • Optical fiber cleavers
  • Optical power meters
  • Optical spectrum analyzers
  • Optical time domain reflectometers OTDR
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Oxidation furnaces
  • Personal computers
  • Photodetectors
  • Photodiode array detectors
  • Photon counting systems
  • Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition PECVD systems
  • Polarimeters
  • Power meters
  • Probe test stations
  • Pulse generators
  • Raman microscopes
  • Rapid thermal annealers RTA
  • Reactive ion etchers RIE
  • Scanning electron microscopes SEM
  • Semiconductor parameter analyzers
  • Single photon lasers
  • Spectrofluorimeters
  • Spectrometers
  • Spectrophotometers
  • Spectroscopes
  • Spin coaters
  • Streak cameras
  • Total internal reflection fluorescence TIRF microscopes
  • Tunable diode lasers
  • Tunable dye lasers
  • Vacuum deposition systems
  • Wavelength meters
  • Xenon arc lamps

Technology Skills required for Photonics Engineer

  • Adept Scientific GRAMS
  • Apollo Photonics APSS
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • BPM_CAD
  • C
  • C#
  • C++
  • Computer-aided drafting or design software
  • Dassault Systemes CATIA
  • Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
  • Debugging software
  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • ESRI software
  • Facebook
  • Finite element analysis FEA software
  • Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
  • Go
  • Linux
  • Mapping software
  • Mathsoft Mathcad
  • Microsoft .NET Framework
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Visual Basic
  • Microsoft Word
  • National Instruments LabVIEW
  • Optical Research Associates LightTools
  • Optiwave OptiBPM
  • Optiwave OptiFDTD
  • Optiwave OptiSPICE
  • Oracle Java
  • Pattern recognition software
  • Perl
  • Photon Design CrystalWave
  • Photon Design FIMMPROP
  • Photon Design FIMMWAVE
  • Photon Design OmniSim
  • Photon Design PICWave
  • Python
  • QGIS
  • SAS
  • Shell script
  • Spectroscopy software
  • Structure query language SQL
  • The MathWorks MATLAB
  • UNIX
  • Wolfram Research Mathematica
  • Zemax