The optics are looking great as African researchers see the light

Photonics is regarded as the science of the future and students and academics on the continent are making great strides in finding applications to address Africa's needs. By Andrew Forbes and Patience Mthunzi-Kufa

- By Andrew Forbes and Patience Mthunzi-Kufa

Light is all around us, essential for one of our primary senses (sight) as well as life on Earth itself. It underpins many technologies that affect our daily lives, including energy harvesting with solar cells, light-emitting-diode (LED) displays and telecommunications through fibre optic networks.

The smartphone is a great example of the power of light. Inside the box, its electronic functionality works because of quantum mechanics. The front screen is an entirely photonic device: liquid crystals controlling light. The back of the phone too: white light-emitting diodes for a flash, and lenses to capture images.

We use the word photonics, and sometimes optics, to capture the harnessing of light for new applications and technologies. Their importance in modern life is celebrated every year on 16 May with the International Day of Light.

Despite the resource constraints under which they work, scientists on the African continent have made notable contributions to photonics research.

Some of their research has been captured in a recent special issue of the journal Applied Optics. Along with colleagues in this field from Morocco and Senegal, we introduced this collection of papers, which aims to celebrate excellence and show the impact of studies that address continental issues.

A spotlight on photonics in Africa

Africa's history in formal optics stems back thousands of years, and references to lens design were already recorded in ancient Egyptian writings.

In more recent times, Africa has contributed to two Nobel prizes based on optics. Egyptian-born Ahmed Zewail watched the ultrafast processes in chemistry with lasers (1999, Nobel Prize for Chemistry) and Moroccan-born Serge Harouche studied the behaviour of individual particles of light, or photons (2012, Nobel Prize for Physics).