It lists highly efficient LEDs, breakthroughs in solar cell design, displays based on carbon nanotubes, and biosensors as just some of the exciting possibilities. However, according to the report "Nanophotonics: Assessment of Technologies and Market Opportunities", the hard part is forecasting which of these applications will actually materialize.
"Worldwide, there will be over $4 bn in government-funded R&D going into nanotechnology in 2004. But the market doesn't care about technologies, it only cares about products and features," said Tom Hausken, director of optical component research at Strategies Unlimited. "It turns out that that the real challenge will be to identify the market opportunities and size the investment to fit them."
As for the current status of nanophotonics, Hausken acknowledges that much of it is still in the lab but comments that some of the first applications are already starting to emerge.
"There's a lot of R&D going on but it's also starting to move out from the lab," he told Optics.org. "Next year, for example, Samsung is supposed to be bringing out a carbon nanotube display, there are some quantum dot products [fluorescence markers for medicine] out there now."
As for how the technology will be commercialized, Hausken says that the most successful approaches are likely to be partnerships between well-known large firms like Corning and Dupont and start-ups with clever ideas.
"Interestingly, it seems that the start-ups are probably the best place to incubate and grow this technology but they don't have the patience or the resources of the big companies which is needed to take it through commercialization."