Is photonics the new electronics?

Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is commonly found in nature, in sand or quartz, and is one of the most abundant chemical compounds on earth. Humans discovered how to transform the silica into silicon, and today almost all of our modern technology is based on this single starting material. The four basic elements of electronics are: (1) electrons as carrier vectors, (2) electrical cables and circuits, (3) the generators and (4) transistors. Progress in photonics provides the opportunity to replace electron flow, for transmission and computing, with a photonic flow or a plasmonic flow; harnessing the interaction between the surface electrons of nanostructured circuits and photons. The information carrier vectors in photonics can be photons, solitons, light balls, or plasmons. The plasmon is a quasi-particle associated with the plasma oscillations of free electron density. The association of this particle, resulting from existing electrons present in the material and injected photons, offers at least two, unique, highly important benefits: (1) the possibility to transmit information with higher frequency (about 100 THz) and (2) the ability to confine light in very small dimension objects. Lasers and spasers are the optical equivalent of electrical generators; optical wave guides and optical fibers act as the transport cables; and plasmonsters and optical transistors are the equivalents of electrical switches and electronic transistors. These new photonic structures are very similar to those found in electronics. For instance, in transparent flexible electronics and in