Many hands make light work: optics in the service of instrumentation and measurement

The advance of photonics in the latter part of the 20th Century represents one of the most important developments and a vital aspect of the exploitation of the technology that began with the invention of the laser. The engineer´s rather belated response to that technology has now been highly successful in stimulating a range of developments, including optical-fibre technology. The `many hands´ who have made light work over the last few decades have contributed a range of devices and techniques to complement optical communications and data transfer systems. This paper gives an overview of their underpinning technology and their development as effective devices and provides pointers to the way forward