Photonics is the broader design space where geometry, refractive index, fabrication limits, and performance targets all interact. I use this tag for posts that are less about a single lens or imaging path and more about how structure can be chosen to make light behave in a particular way.
It is the tag where I want to connect intuition and engineering: waveguides, metasurfaces, resonators, filtering, sensing, and other cases where light response is inseparable from the structure that produces it.
Start here:
If you want the neighboring viewpoint, see Optics.
Further questions, extensions, and related atmospheric optics beyond the primary bow.
ReadWhy interference matters for the fine structure and color detail of rainbows.
ReadThe ray-optics picture of refraction, reflection, and rainbow angles.
ReadHow people understood, misunderstood, and gradually explained rainbows.
ReadA 4-post series on building up rainbow colors from historical ideas to geometrical and wave optics.
View SeriesA short note on how photonics uses structure and materials to control light.
Read